Patrick Gordon Walker

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title: "Patrick Gordon Walker" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1907-births", "1980-deaths", "british-secretaries-of-state-for-education", "british-secretaries-of-state-for-foreign-affairs", "labour-party-(uk)-life-peers", "labour-party-(uk)-meps", "labour-party-(uk)-mps-for-english-constituencies", "members-of-the-fabian-society", "members-of-the-order-of-the-companions-of-honour", "members-of-the-privy-council-of-the-united-kingdom", "meps-for-the-united-kingdom-1973–1979", "people-educated-at-wellington-college,-berkshire", "people-from-worthing", "uk-mps-1945–1950", "uk-mps-1950–1951", "uk-mps-1951–1955", "uk-mps-1955–1959", "uk-mps-1959–1964", "uk-mps-1966–1970", "uk-mps-1970–1974", "uk-mps-who-were-granted-peerages", "ministers-in-the-attlee-governments,-1945–1951", "ministers-in-the-wilson-governments,-1964–1970", "life-peers-created-by-elizabeth-ii", "governors-of-the-british-film-institute"] description: "British Labour politician (1907–1980)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Gordon_Walker" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary British Labour politician (1907–1980) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]

Field	Value
honorific-prefix	The Right Honourable
name	The Lord Gordon-Walker
honorific-suffix
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
office1	Minister without Portfolio
term_start1	6 April 1966
term_end1	29 August 1967
primeminister1	Harold Wilson
predecessor1	Peter Carington
successor1	George Thomson
office2	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
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	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
{{Collapsed infobox section begin	last
titlestyle	border:1px dashed lightgrey;}}{{Infobox officeholder
embed	yes
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 Minister of Defence
term_start4	30 November 1961
term_end4	28 February 1963
leader4	Hugh Gaitskell
George Brown
predecessor4	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
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
office7	Shadow Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations
term_start7	July 1955
term_end7	15 February 1956
leader7	Hugh Gaitskell
successor7	Arthur Creech Jones
office10	Member of Parliament
constituency10	Leyton
term_start10	31 March 1966
term_end10	8 February 1974
predecessor10	Ronald Buxton
successor10	Bryan Magee
constituency11	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_place	Worthing, Sussex, England
death_date
death_place	London, England
party	Labour
spouse
children	5
alma_mater	Christ Church, Oxford
::

| honorific-prefix = The Right Honourable | name = The Lord Gordon-Walker | honorific-suffix = | 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 | office1 = Minister without Portfolio | term_start1 = 6 April 1966 | term_end1 = 29 August 1967 | primeminister1 = Harold Wilson | predecessor1 = Peter Carington | successor1 = George Thomson | office2 = 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 | 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 = 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 | titlestyle = border:1px dashed lightgrey;}}{{Infobox officeholder | embed = yes | 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 Minister of Defence | term_start4 = 30 November 1961 | term_end4 = 28 February 1963 | leader4 = Hugh Gaitskell George Brown | predecessor4 = 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 | 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 | office7 = Shadow Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations | term_start7 = July 1955 | term_end7 = 15 February 1956 | leader7 = Hugh Gaitskell | predecessor7 = | successor7 = Arthur Creech Jones | office10 = Member of Parliament | constituency10 = Leyton | term_start10 = 31 March 1966 | term_end10 = 8 February 1974 | predecessor10 = Ronald Buxton | successor10 = Bryan Magee | constituency11 = 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_place = Worthing, Sussex, England | death_date = | death_place = London, England | party = Labour | spouse = | children = 5 | alma_mater = Christ Church, Oxford Patrick Chrestien Gordon Walker, Baron Gordon-Walker, (7 April 1907 – 2 December 1980) was a British Labour Party politician. He was a Member of Parliament for nearly 30 years and twice 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.

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. He was a student (fellow) in history at Christ Church from 1931 until 1941.

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 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.

From 1946 to 1948, he was chairman of the British Film Institute.

Political career

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

In 1938, he was selected to stand again in the Oxford by-election. The Liberal Party had selected Ivor Davies, who offered to stand down from the by-election if Labour did the same and backed a Popular Front candidate against the Conservatives. Eventually, Gordon Walker reluctantly stood down and both parties supported Sandy Lindsay as an Independent Progressive. 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 the day after winning the seat at the 1945 general election. 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 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 as Secretary of state for Commonwealth relations, serving until Labour's defeat at the 1951 general election.

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, 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.

Following the 1964 general election, after a successful career in opposition, Gordon Walker became 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 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' 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.

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" Labour constituency of Leyton in the Leyton by-election in January 1965; however, he lost, and was finally forced to resign as foreign secretary. After a sabbatical conducting research in Southeast Asia, he finally won Leyton in the 1966 general election. Following this election, he sat 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 appointed a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour.

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

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.

Bibliography

References

Sources

• Pearce, R. (2004) "Gordon Walker, Patrick Chrestien, Baron Gordon-Walker (1907–1980)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, accessed 26 August 2007

References

1. ''Oxford University Calendar 1932'', Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1932, pp. 268, 817.
2. ''Oxford University Calendar 1932'', Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1932, p. 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". University of Toronto Press.
6. ''BFI Annual Reports'', London: BFI
7. [http://liberalhistory.org.uk/uploads/34-35-Spring-Summer%25202002.pdf Liberal History, spring 2002] {{webarchive. link. (24 February 2014)
8. [https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=MQGAXGB4GLkC&dq= By-Elections in British Politics]
9. (2002). "The Communist Party of Great Britain since 1920". Palgrave.
10. Williams, Susan. 2006. ''Colour Bar''. Allen Lane. pp. 125–126
11. (2014). "'This is Staffordshire not Alabama': Racial Geographies of Commonwealth Immigration in Early 1960s Britain". The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History Publication Details, Including Instructions.
12. {{London Gazette. (24 September 1974)

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