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Harold Walker, Baron Walker of Doncaster

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The Right Honourable
The Lord Walker of Doncaster
PC DL
Walker as Deputy Speaker chairing the Budget debate, March 1990
Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons
Chairman of Ways and Means
In office
23 June 1983 – 6 May 1992
SpeakerBernard Weatherill
Preceded byBernard Weatherill
Succeeded byMichael Morris
Minister of State for Employment
In office
14 April 1976 – 4 May 1979
Prime MinisterJames Callaghan
Preceded byAlbert Booth
Succeeded byThe Earl of Gowrie
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
In office
21 October 1997 – 11 November 2003
Life Peerage
Member of Parliament
for Doncaster Central
Doncaster (1964–1983)
In office
15 October 1964 – 8 April 1997
Preceded byAnthony Barber
Succeeded byRosie Winterton
Personal details
Born(1927-07-12)12 July 1927
Audenshaw, Lancashire, England
Died11 November 2003(2003-11-11) (aged 76)
Political partyLabour
SpouseLady Mary Walker [nee Griffin]

Harold Walker, Baron Walker of Doncaster, PC, DL (12 July 1927 – 11 November 2003)[1] was an English Labour politician.

Born in Audenshaw, Walker was educated at Manchester College of Technology and became a toolmaker. He served in the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm and was a lecturer for the National Council of Labour Colleges.

Walker was elected Member of Parliament for Doncaster (after 1983 Doncaster Central) at the 1964 general election. He was a junior whip and then junior employment minister in the first Harold Wilson government, and continued being spokesman on employment in opposition, returning to the ministry in 1974. He was Minister of State at the Department of Employment 1976-79 and he became a Privy Counsellor in 1979. When Labour lost the election that year, Walker became the opposition spokesman for employment and training.

Walker left the employment brief in 1983 following that year's general election, and became Chairman of Ways and Means & Deputy Speaker to Bernard Weatherill. He did not, however, become Speaker when Weatherill retired in 1992, that honour instead going to Betty Boothroyd. He was knighted that year and returned to the backbenches until his retirement.

Walker retired in 1997 and was created a life peer as Baron Walker of Doncaster, of Audenshaw in the County of Greater Manchester on 26 September 1997.[2] In 1998 he became a Deputy Lieutenant of South Yorkshire and Honorary Freeman of Doncaster.

Walker died in November 2003, aged 76.[3]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Historical list of MPs: constituencies beginning with D, part 2". Leigh Rayment's House of Commons pages. Archived from the original on 11 October 2017. Retrieved 14 January 2010.
  2. ^ "No. 54907". The London Gazette. 1 October 1997. p. 11063.
  3. ^ "Obituary - Lord Walker of Doncaster". The Independent. 13 November 2003. Archived from the original on 9 May 2022. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
[edit]
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Doncaster
1964–1983 		Constituency abolished
New constituency Member of Parliament for Doncaster Central
1983–1997 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Chairman of Ways and Means
1983 – 1992 		Succeeded by


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