Patrick Gordon Walker

Patrick Chrestien Gordon Walker, Baron Gordon-Walker, CH, PC (7 April 1907 – 2 December 1980) was a British Labour politician. He was a Member of Parliament for nearly thirty years, and served twice as a Cabinet Minister. He lost his Smethwick parliamentary seat at the 1964 general election, in a bitterly racial campaign conducted in the wake of local factory closures.

The Right Honourable The Lord Gordon-Walker CH PC
Secretary of State for Education and Science
In office 29 August 1967 – 6 April 1968
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Anthony Crosland
Succeeded by	Edward Short
Minister without Portfolio
In office 6 April 1966 – 29 August 1967
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Peter Carington
Succeeded by	George Thomson
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
In office 16 October 1964 – 22 January 1965
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Rab Butler
Succeeded by	Michael Stewart
Shadow Foreign Secretary
In office 14 February 1963 – 16 October 1964
Leader	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Harold Wilson
Succeeded by	Rab Butler
Shadow Home Secretary
In office 13 May 1957 – 12 March 1962
Leader	Hugh Gaitskell
Preceded by	Kenneth Younger
Succeeded by	George Brown
Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations
In office 28 February 1950 – 26 October 1951
Prime Minister	Clement Attlee
Preceded by	Philip Noel-Baker
Succeeded by	The Lord Ismay
Under-Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations
In office 7 October 1947 – 28 February 1950
Prime Minister	Clement Attlee
Preceded by	Arthur Bottomley
Succeeded by	Angus Holden
Member of Parliament for Leyton
In office 31 March 1966 – 8 February 1974
Preceded by	Ronald Buxton
Succeeded by	Bryan Magee
Member of Parliament for Smethwick
In office 1 October 1945 – 25 September 1964
Preceded by	Alfred Dobbs
Succeeded by	Peter Griffiths
Personal details
Born	Patrick Chrestien Gordon Walker (1907-04-07)7 April 1907 Worthing, Sussex, England
Died	2 December 1980(1980-12-02) (aged 73) London, England
Political party	Labour
Spouse(s)	Audrey Muriel Rudolf ( m. 1934)
Children	5
Alma mater	Christ Church, Oxford

Early life

Born in Worthing, Sussex, Gordon Walker was the son of Alan Lachlan Gordon Walker, a Scottish judge in the Indian Civil Service. He was educated at Wellington College and at Christ Church, Oxford, where he took a Second in Modern History in 1928 and subsequently gained a B. Litt.[1] He served as a Student (Fellow) in history at Christ Church from 1931[2] until 1941.[3]

From 1940 to 1944, Gordon Walker worked for the BBC's European Service, where from 1942 he arranged the BBC's daily broadcasts to Germany. In 1945, he worked as Assistant Director of BBC's German Service working from Radio Luxembourg, travelling with the British forces. He broadcast about the liberation of the German concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen, and wrote a book on the subject called The Lid Lifts.[4][5]

From 1946 to 1948, he was Chairman of the British Film Institute.[6]

Political career

He first stood for Parliament at the 1935 general election, when he was unsuccessful in the Conservative-held Oxford constituency.[4]

In 1938, he was selected to stand again in the Oxford by-election. The Liberal Party had selected Ivor Davies,[7] who offered to stand down from the by-election if Labour did the same and backed a Popular Front candidate against the Conservatives.[8] Eventually, Gordon Walker reluctantly stood down and both parties supported Sandy Lindsay as an Independent Progressive.[9] Quintin Hogg, the Conservative candidate, defeated Lindsay in the by-election.

Gordon Walker did not contest the 1945 general election, but was elected later in 1945 as Member of Parliament (MP) for Smethwick in a by-election on 1 October 1945 after Labour's Alfred Dobbs was killed in a car accident one day after winning the seat at the 1945 general election.[4] After the by-election, Gordon Walker's support in the constituency gradually declined.

Once in Parliament, Gordon Walker was promoted rapidly through the ranks of Clement Attlee's Labour government. In 1946, he was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Herbert Morrison, the Leader of the House of Commons. From 1947 to 1950, he was a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Commonwealth Relations Office, and in 1950 he joined the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations, serving until Labour's defeat at the 1951 general election.[4]

As Commonwealth Secretary in 1950, Gordon Walker persuaded the cabinet to agree to prevent Seretse Khama, the heir to the throne of the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, from becoming its king - on the grounds that he had wed a white English woman, Ruth Williams, an inter-racial marriage that had upset Bechaunaland's neighbouring state, apartheid South Africa.

Khama had been brought to Britain by the government under false pretences, ostensibly to talk about his future, and at Gordon Walker's behest he was then prevented from returning to his homeland for five years, subsequently increased to a lifetime ban (although eventually rescinded by a later, Conservative, government). Khama said the unexpected and earth shattering news of his exile was given to him by Gordon Walker in an 'unemotional' and 'unfeeling' manner. 'I doubt that any man has been asked to give up his birthright in such cold, calculating terms,' he said.[10]

After the 1964 general election, following a successful career in opposition, Gordon Walker became Foreign Secretary in a widely anticipated Labour government; he had held the shadow role for the previous year.

Although Labour did win that election to end 13 years of Conservative rule, Gordon Walker was defeated in controversial circumstances by the Conservative candidate Peter Griffiths. Smethwick had been a focus of immigration from the Commonwealth but the economic and industrial growth of the years following the Second World War were coupled with local factory closures, an ageing population and a lack of modern housing. Griffiths ran a campaign critical of the opposition's, and the government's, policies, including immigration policies. Griffiths was also accused of exploiting the slogan "If you want a nigger neighbour, vote Labour".[4]

Despite, therefore, not being an MP or peer able to answer to Parliament, Gordon Walker was appointed to the Foreign Office by Harold Wilson. To resolve this unusual situation, he stood for the safe Labour constituency of Leyton in the Leyton by-election in January 1965, losing again, and was finally forced to resign as Foreign Secretary.[4] After a sabbatical conducting research in Southeast Asia, he finally won Leyton in the 1966 general election. Following this election, he served in the Cabinet in 1967–68, first as Minister without Portfolio, then as Secretary of State for Education and Science. On his retirement from the Cabinet in 1968, he was made a Companion of Honour.[4]

Gordon Walker retired from the House of Commons at the February 1974 general election. On 4 July that same year he was made a life peer as Baron Gordon-Walker, of Leyton in Greater London,[11] in 1974 and was briefly a Member of the European Parliament.[4]

Personal life

In 1934 he married Audrey Muriel Rudolf. They subsequently had twin sons and three daughters. Lord Gordon-Walker died in London in 1980, aged 73.[4]

See also

• Smethwick (UK Parliament constituency)
• 1945 Smethwick by-election
• Leyton (UK Parliament constituency)
• 1965 Leyton by-election

References

1. Oxford University Calendar 1932, Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1932, pg.268, 817.
2. Oxford University Calendar 1932, Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1932, pg.541.
3. The Times, 3 December 1980, p.19 col.6
4. Pearce (2004)
5. Celinscak, Mark (2015). Distance from the Belsen Heap: Allied Forces and the Liberation of a Concentration Camp. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 9781442615700.
6. BFI Annual Reports, London: BFI
7. Liberal History, Spring 2002 Archived 24 February 2014 at the Wayback Machine
8. By-Elections in British Politics
9. Eaden, James; Renton, David (2002). The Communist Party of Great Britain since 1920. Palgrave. p. 67. ISBN 0-333-94968-4.
10. Williams, Susan. 2006. Colour Bar. Allen Lane. p 125-126
11. "No. 46352". The London Gazette. 24 September 1974. p. 7918.

Publications by Patrick Gordon Walker

• Gordon Walker, P. C. (1937). Capitalism and the Reformation. in Economic History Review.
• Gordon Walker, P. C. (1939). An Outline of Man's History. London: N.C.L.C. Publishing Society.
• Restatement of Liberty. London: Hutchinson. 1951.
• The Lid Lifts: An Account of the Author’s Experiences During Two Visits to Occupied Germany in the Spring of 1945. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd. 1945.
• The Commonwealth. London: Secker & Warburg. 1962.
• The Cabinet. London: Cape. 1970. ISBN 0-224-61819-9.
• Robert Pearce, ed. (c. 1991). Patrick Gordon Walker: Political Diaries 1932–1971. London: Historians' Press. ISBN 1-872273-05-X.

Sources

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs
• Craig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969]. British parliamentary election results 1918–1949 (3rd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.
• Griffiths, P. (1966). A Question of Colour. The Smethwick Election of 1964. London: Leslie Frewin.
• Pearce, R. (2004) "Gordon Walker, Patrick Chrestien, Baron Gordon-Walker (1907–1980)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, accessed 26 August 2007 (subscription or UK public library membership required)
• Prem, D. R. (1965). Parliamentary Leper: A History of Colour Prejudice in Britain. Metric Publications/Aligarh University Press.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Patrick Gordon Walker
• Janus: Papers of Baron Gordon-Walker
• BBC Recording of Gordon-Walker reporting from newly liberated Bergen Belsen

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Alfred Dobbs	Member of Parliament for Smethwick 1945–1964	Succeeded by Peter Griffiths
Preceded by Ronald Buxton	Member of Parliament for Leyton 1966–1974	Succeeded by Bryan Magee
Political offices
Preceded by Philip Noel-Baker	Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations 1950–1951	Succeeded by The Lord Ismay
Preceded by Kenneth Younger	Shadow Home Secretary 1957–1962	Succeeded by George Brown
Preceded by Harold Wilson	Shadow Foreign Secretary 1963–1964	Succeeded by Rab Butler
Preceded by Rab Butler	Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs 1964–1965	Succeeded by Michael Stewart
Preceded by Peter Carington	Minister without Portfolio 1966–1967	Succeeded by George Thomson
Preceded by Tony Crosland	Secretary of State for Education and Science 1967–1968	Succeeded by Edward Short