View source for Patrick Gordon Walker

{{Short description|British Labour politician (1907–1980)}}
{{British barrelled name|Gordon Walker|Walker}}
{{EngvarB|date=July 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2016}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix    = [[The Right Honourable]]
| name                = The Lord Gordon-Walker
| honorific-suffix    = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CH|PC}}
| image               = Member of Parliament of Great Britain, Patrick Gordon Walker.jpg
| caption             = Gordon Walker in 1963
| office              = [[Secretary of State for Education and Science]]
| term_start          = 29 August 1967
| term_end            = 6 April 1968
| primeminister       = [[Harold Wilson]]
| predecessor         = [[Anthony Crosland]]
| successor           = [[Edward Short, Baron Glenamara|Edward Short]]
| office1             = [[Minister without portfolio (United Kingdom)|Minister without Portfolio]]
| term_start1         = 6 April 1966
| term_end1           = 29 August 1967
| primeminister1      = [[Harold Wilson]]
| predecessor1        = [[Peter Carington]]
| successor1          = [[George Thomson, Baron Thomson of Monifieth|George Thomson]]
| office2             = [[Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (UK)|Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs]]
| term_start2         = 16 October 1964
| term_end2           = 22 January 1965
| primeminister2      = [[Harold Wilson]]
| predecessor2        = [[Rab Butler]]
| successor2          = [[Michael Stewart, Baron Stewart of Fulham|Michael Stewart]]
| office3             = [[Shadow Foreign Secretary]]
| term_start3         = 28 February 1963
| term_end3           = 16 October 1964
| leader3             = [[Harold Wilson]]
| predecessor3        = [[Harold Wilson]]
| successor3          = [[Rab Butler]]
| office4             = [[Shadow Secretary of State for Defence|Shadow Minister of Defence]]
| term_start4         = 30 November 1961
| term_end4           = 28 February 1963
| leader4             = [[Hugh Gaitskell]]<br>[[George Brown, Baron George-Brown|George Brown]]
| predecessor4        = [[George Brown, Baron George-Brown|George Brown]]
| successor4          = [[Denis Healey]]
| office5             = [[Shadow Home Secretary]]
| term_start5         = 24 January 1958
| term_end5           = 30 November 1961
| leader5             = [[Hugh Gaitskell]]
| predecessor5        = [[Kenneth Younger]]
| successor5          = [[George Brown, Baron George-Brown|George Brown]]
| office6             = [[Shadow President of the Board of Trade]]
| term_start6         = 15 February 1956
| term_end6           = 24 January 1958
| leader6             = [[Hugh Gaitskell]]
| predecessor6        = [[Harold Wilson]]
| successor6          = [[Dick Mitchison, Baron Mitchison|Dick Mitchison]]
| office7             = [[Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations|Shadow Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations]]
| term_start7         = July 1955
| term_end7           = 15 February 1956
| leader7             = [[Hugh Gaitskell]]
| predecessor7        = 
| successor7          = [[Arthur Creech Jones]]

| office8             = [[Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations]]
| term_start8         = 28 February 1950
| term_end8           = 26 October 1951
| primeminister8      = [[Clement Attlee]]
| predecessor8        = [[Philip Noel-Baker]]
| successor8          = [[Hastings Ismay, 1st Baron Ismay|The Lord Ismay]]
| office9             = [[Under-Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations]]
| term_start9         = 7 October 1947
| term_end9           = 28 February 1950
| primeminister9      = [[Clement Attlee]]
| predecessor9        = [[Arthur Bottomley]]
| successor9          = [[Angus Holden, 3rd Baron Holden|Angus Holden]]

| office10            = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]]<br />for [[Leyton (UK Parliament constituency)|Leyton]]
| term_start10        = 31 March 1966
| term_end10          = 8 February 1974
| predecessor10      = [[Ronald Buxton (British politician)|Ronald Buxton]]
| successor10         = [[Bryan Magee]]
| office11            = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]]<br />for [[Smethwick (UK Parliament constituency)|Smethwick]]
| term_start11        = 1 October 1945
| term_end11          = 25 September 1964
| predecessor11       = [[Alfred Dobbs]]
| successor11         = [[Peter Griffiths]]
| birth_name          = Patrick Chrestien Gordon Walker
| birth_date          = {{birth date|df=yes|1907|4|7}}
| birth_place         = [[Worthing, Sussex]], England
| death_date          = {{death date and age|df=yes|1980|12|2|1907|4|7}}
| death_place         = [[London]], England
| party               = [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]]
| spouse              = {{marriage|Audrey Muriel Rudolf|1934}}
| children            = 5
| alma_mater          = [[Christ Church, Oxford]]
}}
'''Patrick Chrestien Gordon Walker, Baron Gordon-Walker''', {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|CH|PC}} (7 April 1907 – 2 December 1980) was a British [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] politician. He was a Member of Parliament for nearly 30 years and twice a cabinet minister. He lost his [[Smethwick (UK Parliament constituency)|Smethwick]] parliamentary seat at the [[1964 United Kingdom general election|1964 general election]] in a bitterly racial campaign conducted in the wake of local factory closures.

==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 (Berkshire)|Wellington College]] and at [[Christ Church, Oxford]], where he took a second in modern history in 1928 and subsequently gained a [[Bachelor of Letters|B. Litt]].<ref>''Oxford University Calendar 1932'', Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1932, pg.268, 817.</ref> He was a student (fellow) in history at Christ Church from 1931<ref>''Oxford University Calendar 1932'', Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1932, pg.541.</ref> until 1941.<ref name="timesobit">''[[The Times]]'', 3 December 1980, p.19 col.6</ref>

From 1940 to 1944, Gordon Walker worked for the [[BBC]]'s European Service, where from 1942 he arranged the BBC's daily broadcasts of the [[BBC German Service]]. In 1945, he worked as assistant director of the BBC's German Service working from [[Radio Luxembourg]], travelling with the [[British army|British forces]]. He broadcast about the liberation of the German [[Nazi concentration camps|concentration camp]] at [[Bergen-Belsen]], and wrote a book on the subject called ''The Lid Lifts''.<ref name="ODNB">Pearce (2004)</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Celinscak|first=Mark|title=Distance from the Belsen Heap: Allied Forces and the Liberation of a Concentration Camp|year=2015|publisher=University of Toronto Press|location=Toronto|isbn=9781442615700}}</ref>

From 1946 to 1948, he was chairman of the [[British Film Institute]].<ref>''BFI Annual Reports'', London: BFI</ref>

==Political career==
He first stood for [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|parliament]] at the [[1935 United Kingdom general election|1935 general election]], when he was unsuccessful in the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]]-held [[Oxford (UK Parliament constituency)|Oxford constituency]].<ref name="ODNB"/>

In 1938, he was selected to stand again in the [[1938 Oxford by-election|Oxford by-election]]. The [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]] had selected [[Ivor Davies (politician)|Ivor Davies]],<ref>[http://liberalhistory.org.uk/uploads/34-35-Spring-Summer%25202002.pdf Liberal History, spring 2002] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140224051007/http://liberalhistory.org.uk/uploads/34-35-Spring-Summer%25202002.pdf |date=24 February 2014 }}</ref> who offered to stand down from the by-election if Labour did the same and backed a [[Popular Front (UK)|Popular Front]] candidate against the Conservatives.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=MQGAXGB4GLkC&dq= By-Elections in British Politics]</ref> Eventually, Gordon Walker reluctantly stood down and both parties supported [[Sandy Lindsay]] as an [[Independent Progressive]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Eaden|first1=James|last2=Renton|first2=David|title=The Communist Party of Great Britain since 1920|url=https://archive.org/details/communistpartygr1920eade|url-access=limited|year=2002|publisher=Palgrave|isbn=0-333-94968-4|page=[https://archive.org/details/communistpartygr1920eade/page/n89 67]}}</ref> [[Quintin Hogg, 2nd Viscount Hailsham|Quintin Hogg]], the Conservative candidate, defeated Lindsay in the by-election.

Gordon Walker did not contest the [[1945 United Kingdom general election|1945 general election]], but was elected later in 1945 as member of Parliament (MP) for [[Smethwick (UK Parliament constituency)|Smethwick]] in a [[1945 Smethwick by-election|by-election]] on 1 October 1945 after Labour's [[Alfred Dobbs]] was killed in a car accident the day after winning the seat at the [[1945 United Kingdom general election|1945 general election]].<ref name="ODNB"/> 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 1945-1951|Labour government]]. In 1946, he was appointed a [[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 of the United Kingdom|cabinet]] as [[Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations|Secretary of state for Commonwealth relations]], serving until Labour's defeat at the [[1951 United Kingdom general election|1951 general election]].<ref name="ODNB"/>

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 married a white English woman, [[Ruth Williams Khama|Ruth Williams]], an inter-racial marriage that had upset Bechuanaland'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.<ref>Williams, Susan. 2006. ''Colour Bar''. Allen Lane. p 125-126</ref>

After the [[1964 United Kingdom general election|1964 general election]], following a successful career in opposition, Gordon Walker became [[Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (UK)|foreign secretary]] in the 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 [[Smethwick in the 1964 general election|defeated in controversial circumstances]] by the Conservative candidate, [[Peter Griffiths]]. Smethwick had been a focus of immigration from the [[Commonwealth of Nations|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' supporters made wide use of the slogan "If you want a [[nigger]] neighbour, vote Liberal or Labour". Griffiths did not accept that he had invented the slogan, but steadfastly refused to condemn it.<ref name="ODNB"/><ref name="buettner">{{cite journal |last1=Buettner |first1=Elizabeth |title='This is Staffordshire not Alabama': Racial Geographies of Commonwealth Immigration in Early 1960s Britain |journal=The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History Publication Details, Including Instructions |date=2014 |volume=42 |issue=4 |page=710-740 |doi=10.1080/03086534.2014.962929 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03086534.2014.962929 |access-date=22 April 2024|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

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 normally "[[Safe seat|safe]]" Labour constituency of [[Leyton (UK Parliament constituency)|Leyton]] in the [[1965 Leyton by-election|Leyton by-election]] in January 1965; however, he lost, and was finally forced to resign as foreign secretary.<ref name="ODNB"/> After a sabbatical conducting research in Southeast Asia,{{Citation needed|date=August 2007}} he finally won Leyton in the [[1966 United Kingdom general election|1966 general election]]. Following this election, he sat in the cabinet in 1967–68, first as [[Minister without portfolio (United Kingdom)|minister without portfolio]], then as [[secretary of state for education and science]]. On his retirement from the cabinet in 1968, he was appointed a [[Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour]].<ref name="ODNB"/>

Gordon Walker retired from the [[British House of Commons|House of Commons]] at the [[February 1974 United Kingdom general election|February 1974 general election]]. On 4 July that year, he was made a [[life peer]] as '''Baron Gordon-Walker''', ''of [[Leyton]] in [[Greater London]]'',<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=46352 |date=24 September 1974 |page=7918}}</ref> in 1974 and was briefly a [[member of the European Parliament]].<ref name="ODNB"/>

==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.<ref name="ODNB"/>

==Bibliography==
*{{cite journal|last=Gordon Walker|first=P. C.|title=Capitalism and the Reformation|year=1937 |journal=Economic History Review}}
*{{cite book|last=Gordon Walker|first=P. C.|title=An Outline of Man's History|year=1939 |publisher=N.C.L.C. Publishing Society|location=London}}
*{{cite book|title=Restatement of Liberty|year=1951|publisher=[[Hutchinson (publisher)|Hutchinson]]|location=London}}
*{{cite book|title=The Lid Lifts: An Account of the Author's Experiences During Two Visits to Occupied Germany in the Spring of 1945|year=1945|publisher=[[Victor Gollancz Ltd]]|place=London}}
*{{cite book|title=The Commonwealth|year=1962|publisher=[[Secker & Warburg]]|location=London}}
*{{cite book|title=The Cabinet|year=1970|publisher=Cape |location=London|isbn=0-224-61819-9}}
*{{cite book|editor=Robert Pearce|title=Patrick Gordon Walker: Political Diaries 1932–1971 |year=c. 1991|publisher=Historians' Press|location=London|isbn=1-872273-05-X}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
*{{Rayment-hc|date=March 2012}}
*{{cite book|last=Craig|first=F. W. S.|author-link=F. W. S. Craig|title=British parliamentary election results 1918–1949|orig-year=1969|edition=3rd|year=1983|publisher=Parliamentary Research Services|location=[[Chichester]]|isbn=0-900178-06-X}}
*{{cite book|author=Griffiths, P.|author-link=Peter Griffiths|title=A Question of Colour. The Smethwick Election of 1964|location=London|publisher=Leslie Frewin|year=1966}}
*Pearce, R. (2004) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/31161 "Gordon Walker, Patrick Chrestien, Baron Gordon-Walker (1907–1980)"], ''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]'', [[Oxford University Press]], accessed 26 August 2007 {{ODNBsub}}
*{{cite book|author=Prem, D. R.|title=Parliamentary Leper: A History of Colour Prejudice in Britain|publisher=Metric Publications/Aligarh University Press|year=1965}}

==External links==
*{{Hansard-contribs|mr-patrick-gordon-walker|Patrick Gordon Walker}}
*[https://archivesearch.lib.cam.ac.uk/repositories/9/resources/1590 The Papers of Baron Gordon-Walker] held at [[Churchill Archives Centre]]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070213185107/http://genealogy.org.il/BergenBelsenHatikva.mp3 BBC recording of Gordon-Walker reporting from newly liberated Bergen Belsen]

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{{s-bef|before=[[Alfred Dobbs]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=Member of Parliament<br>for [[Smethwick (UK Parliament constituency)|Smethwick]]|years=[[1945 Smethwick by-election|1945]]–[[1964 United Kingdom general election|1964]]}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Peter Griffiths]]}}
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{{s-ttl|title=[[Minister without portfolio (United Kingdom)|Minister without Portfolio]]|years=1966–1967}}
{{s-aft|after=[[George Thomson, Baron Thomson of Monifieth|George Thomson]]}}
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{{s-aft|after=[[Edward Short, Baron Glenamara|Edward Short]]}}
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{{Foreign Secretary}}
{{Shadow Foreign Secretaries}}
{{Shadow Home Secretaries}}
{{Secretaries of State for Education}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon Walker, Patrick}}
[[Category:1907 births]]
[[Category:1980 deaths]]
[[Category:British Secretaries of State for Education]]
[[Category:British Secretaries of State for Foreign Affairs]]
[[Category:Labour Party (UK) life peers]]
[[Category:Labour Party (UK) MEPs]]
[[Category:Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies]]
[[Category:Members of the Fabian Society]]
[[Category:Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour]]
[[Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:MEPs for the United Kingdom 1973–1979]]
[[Category:People educated at Wellington College, Berkshire]]
[[Category:People from Worthing]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1945–1950]]
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[[Category:UK MPs who were granted peerages]]
[[Category:Ministers in the Attlee governments, 1945–1951]]
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[[Category:Governors of the British Film Institute]]