Walter Walker

General Sir Walter Colyear Walker KCB, CBE, DSO & bar PMN PSNB (11 November 1912 – 12 August 2001) was a controversial British General.

Early life

Walker born on a tea plantation in India to a military family and was one of four sons. At the end of the First World War Walker and his family moved back to Britain and he was sent to Blundell's School in Devon. [ [http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,3604,536426,00.html Dennis Barker, 'General Sir Walter Walker', "The Guardian", 14 August, 2001] ] Even as a child Walker had a militaristic streak; in his memoirs "Fighting On" he says he ordered the previously "idle, unpatriotic, unkempt" pupils into "showing the school what smartness on the parade ground meant". His teachers became alarmed at Walker's strict behaviour and tried to explain the difference between "driving" and "leading". [Andy Beckett, "Pinochet in Piccadilly. Britain and Chile's Hidden History" (Lodnon: Faber and Faber, 2003), pp. 192-3.]

Military career

Walker then went to Sandhurst and in 1933 joined his grandfather's regiment, the 1/8th Gurkha Rifles. During the rest of the decade he orchestrated "punitive operations" against tribesman of the North West Frontier in India. [Beckett, p. 193.]

During the Second World War Walker fought against the Japanese in the jungle warfare of the Burma campaign, during which he became ill and lost a great deal of weight. [Beckett, p. 193.]

He was promoted to Colonel and in 1948 was saw service against Communist rebels in Malaya, when they attacked British-owned plantations during the Malayan Emergency. Walker lambasted the British Labour Party for not banning the Malayan Communist Party. During his time in Malaya, Walker formed the plantation owners into a civilian volunteer force and utilised informers and spies. By 1958 he was a brigadier and a Commander of the British Empire. [Beckett, p. 193.]

During 1959, Walker was in Singapore policing that city's first post-colonial elections. He ordered his men to get to know the city intimately, in order to deal with "screeching mobs". [Beckett, p. 193.] He was twice mentioned in dispatches. [Barker.]

From 1962, Walker commanded Commonwealth forces in Brunei and Borneo, during the Confrontation with Indonesia. During this period, Walker was promoted to the rank of Major General. [Beckett, p. 194.]

Then in 1965 he was recalled to Britain where he was appointed to Deputy Chief of Staff in charge of Plans, Operations and Intelligence, H.Q., Allied Forces Central Europe, and afterwards General Officer Commander-in-Chief of the British army in northern Britain. His last post was Commander-in-Chief of NATO in Northern Europe from 1969 until his retirement in 1972 after 40 years service in the army. [Barker.]

Politics

Walker then began giving television interviews and then took part in a documentary named "A Day in the Life of a General" which was never aired due to security reasons, although Walker believed it was banned because he was "revealing the true state of affairs which the politicians are hiding from the public". [Beckett, pp. 194-5.]

By 1974 Walker had grown "shocked" by the state of the country in general and the "militancy" of the trade unions in particular. In July of that year he wrote a letter to "The Daily Telegraph" calling for "dynamic, invigorating, uplifting leadership...above party politics" which would "save" the country from "the Communist Trojan horse in our midst". After the publication of this letter Walker claimed he received positive responses from Admiral of the Fleet Sir Varyl Begg, Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir John Slessor, a few British generals, ex-MPs, the Goon comedian Michael Bentine and the shipping industrialist Lord Cayzer. [Beckett, p. 196.]

Shortly after this letter the London "Evening News" (now defunct) gave Walker a front-page interview and asked him if he could imagine a situation in which the army could take over Britain. Walker responded: "Perhaps the country might choose rule by the gun in preference to anarchy", [Beckett, p. 196.] although Walker always argued he hated the idea of a military government in Britain. [Barker.]

By August 1974 Walker had joined the anti-Communist "Unison" group (later renamed to Civil Assistance) which claimed would supply volunteers in the event of a general strike. [Beckett, p. 197.] Walker claimed it had at least 100,000 members, which led Defence Secretary Roy Mason to interrupt his holiday by condemning this "near fascist groundswell". [Beckett, p. 198.] In 1975 Walker travelled to various boardrooms in the City of London in the hope of securing money and support. [Beckett, pp. 199-200.] After Margaret Thatcher was elected Leader of the Conservative Party Walker and Civil Assistance faded from the media although he still travelled abroad, notably to Rhodesia and South Africa. [Beckett, p. 200.]

Walker privately told journalists that he thought Harold Wilson was a "proven Communist" and that there was a "Communist cell" in Downing Street [David Leigh, "The Wilson Plot. The Intelligence Services and the discrediting of a Prime Minister" (London: Heinemann, 1988), p. 221.] (conclusively disproven by MI5 investigations). He advocated Enoch Powell as Prime Minister and favoured "tougher" measures against the IRA. He was an early member of the Conservative Monday Club and about 1984, until his death, became Patron of the ultra-conservative, anti-communist, and anti-Marxist pressure-group, the Western Goals Institute.

In 1980 his book "The Next Domino?", with a foreword by Monday Club MP Julian Amery, was first published simultaneously in the UK, the U.S., and South Africa.

In the 1980s, Walker's health began to decline and he underwent two hip operations in military hospitals. They left him permanently disabled which led to Walker suing the Ministry of Defence in 1990. The suit was eventually settled out of court. [Beckett, p. 201.]

Bibliography

*"The Bear At the Back Door", by General Sir Walter Walker, London, 1978.
*"The Next Domino?", by General Sir Walter Walker, KCB, CBE, DSO, with a foreword by the Rt. Hon. Julian Amery, P.C., M.P. (1st edition, 1980, London, ISBN 0-85205-005-4; paperback revised edition published 20 August 1982, London).
*"Fighting On", by General Sir Walter Walker, London, 1997.

Notes

References

*"Pinochet in Piccadilly: Britain and Chile's Hidden History" by Andy Beckett (Faber and Faber, 2003) ISBN 0-571-21547-5
*"The Wilson Plot" by David Leigh (Heineman, 1988) ISBN 0-434-41340-2

External links

* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=J13JMK23BFPHHQFIQMGCFGGAVCBQUIV0?xml=/news/2001/08/13/db01.xml&page=1 "The Daily Telegraph" obituary]
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,3604,536426,00.html "The Guardian" obituary]