Dennis Walters
Dennis Walters | |
---|---|
Member of Parliament for Westbury | |
In office 1964-1992 | |
Personal details | |
Born | 28 November 1928 |
Died | 2 October 2021 | (aged 92)
Political party | Conservative |
Spouse(s) |
Vanora McIndoe
(m. 1955; div. 1969)Celia Sandys (div. 1979) Bridgett Shearer (div. 2004) |
Children | 5 |
Education | St Catharine's College, Cambridge |
Sir Dennis Murray Walters MBE (28 November 1928 – 1 October 2021) was a British Conservative Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Westbury from 1964 to 1992.[1][2]
Early life
The son of Douglas L. Walters and Clara Walters (née Pomello), Walters was of English and Italian descent; he was brought up as a
Career
In the late 1950s, Walters was employed as personal assistant to the Conservative peer Lord Hailsham throughout his chairmanship of the Conservative Party.[5]
At the 1959 general election, Walters contested
Following the Six-Day War of 1967, Walters visited Palestine with his parliamentary colleague Ian Gilmour, and in a joint statement they said "The Israeli attitude to the refugees becomes clearer when their return rather than their expulsion is considered. Most people in Britain probably believe that Israel has agreed to their return and that repatriation is now satisfactorily proceeding. Nothing could be further from the truth."[9] This was an early signal of the willingness of Walters and Gilmour to work closely together to explain the Arab point of view to the Western world, and they became close allies.[10]
Outside parliament, Walters served as Chairman of Middle East International, founded in 1971 by
Establishment of the Conservative Middle East Council (CMEC)
In 1980, Walters established the Conservative Middle East Council, primarily to help give a voice to Conservatives who supported the Palestinians in their demands for self-determination. In 1967, following the Six Day War, Sir Dennis had visited the region with his Conservative colleague and close political ally, Ian Gilmour, to argue for the return of Palestinian refugees.[11]
The establishment of CMEC by Sir Dennis followed the Venice Declaration of June 1980,[12] when the then nine members of the European Economic Community registered their concern over the continued building of settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Sir Dennis and other Conservatives also viewed continued settlement building in the Occupied Territories as an obstacle to peace and resolved that the traditional ties and common interests which link Europe to the Middle East obliged them to play a special role in working towards a lasting peace.
Sir Dennis was CMEC’s first Chairman and a decade later became its president. Knighted in 1988, Sir Dennis was an outspoken critic of certain aspects of the government’s foreign policy in the Middle East, not least its decision to lend its support the US bombing of Libya, which was carried out in April 1986 in retaliation for Tripoli-sponsored acts of terrorism.
When the Conservatives returned to government in 1979, Walters's well-known pro-Arabism cost him the chance of advancement as a
From 1965 to the 1990s, he served as a Governor of the
Honours
In 1960, Walters was appointed
Personal life
Walters was married three times: firstly in 1955 to Vanora McIndoe, a daughter of the surgeon Sir Archibald McIndoe (divorced 1969); secondly to Celia Sandys, daughter of the politician Duncan Sandys (divorced 1979); and thirdly, in 1981, to Bridgett Shearer, daughter of the late J. Francis Shearer (divorced 2004). By his first wife, he had a son and daughter; by his second wife, a son, and by his third wife, a daughter and son.[4] He lived in Chelsea.[2]
He was a member of the Boodle's, Hurlingham and Queen's clubs. Walters' memoirs, Not Always with the Pack, were published in 1989, and translated into a revised Italian edition, which was issued in 1991.[2]
Walters died on 1 October 2021, at the age of 92.[14]
Publications
- Not Always with the Pack. United Kingdom, Constable, 1989. ISBN 9780094693104
- Benedetti Inglesi Benedetti Italiani (Italian translation, revised edition), 1991.
References
- ^ "Living former Members of the House of Commons" (PDF). researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk. 7 January 2019. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-954088-4. Archived from the originalon 4 May 2021. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
- ^ Dennis Walters, Not Always With the Pack (London: Constable, 1989), p. 26 et seq.
- ^ Charles Roger Dod, Robert Phipps Dod, Dod's Parliamentary Companion 1991, p. 595
- ^ Walters, op. cit., p. 86.
- ^ Walters, op. cit., pp. 106–108
- ^ Walters, op. cit., p. 108
- ^ Walters, op. cit., p. 145
- ^ Sami Hadawi, Bitter Harvest: a modern history of Palestine (1991), p. 147
- ^ Alan Watkins, Brief lives: with some memoirs (1982), p. 51
- ^ Sir Denis, Walters- Obituary (7 October 2021). "Sir Dennis Walters remembered". CMEC WEBSITE. Archived from the original on 12 December 2021. Retrieved 7 October 2021.
- ^ Venice, Declaration (13 June 1980). "The Venice Declaration" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 November 2017.
- ^ Walters, op. cit., p. 192
- ^ Walters, Nicholas (4 October 2021). "Walters". The Telegraph Announcements. The Telegraph. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
Sources
- The Times Guide to the House of Commons, Times Newspapers Ltd, 1966, 1987 & 1992
- Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages [better source needed]