Derek Walker-Smith, Baron Broxbourne

By Godfrey Argent 1969

Derek Colclough Walker-Smith, Baron Broxbourne, TD, PC, QC (13 April 1910 – 22 January 1992), known as Sir Derek Walker-Smith, Bt, from 1960 to 1983, was a British Conservative Party politician.

The son of Sir Jonah Walker-Smith (1874–1964) and his wife Maud, daughter of Coulton Walker Hunter,^[1] Walker-Smith was educated at Rossall School and Christ Church, Oxford. He became a barrister, called to the bar by Middle Temple in 1934. He was vice-chairman of the Inns of Court Conservative and Unionist Society and was made Queen's Counsel in 1955.

Walker-Smith was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hertford from 1945 to 1955, and East Hertfordshire from 1955 to 1983. He was vice-chair of the 1922 Committee 1951–55. He held ministerial positions, including Economic Secretary to the Treasury (1956–57), at the Board of Trade (1955–56 and 1957), and Health (1957–59).

Walker-Smith was created a baronet, of Broxbourne in the County of Hertford, in 1960. On 21 September 1983, he was elevated to a life peerage as Baron Broxbourne, of Broxbourne in the County of Hertfordshire.^[2] The life barony became extinct on his death aged 81 in 1992 while he was succeeded in the hereditary baronetcy by his son Jonah.

References[]

• Times Guide to the House of Commons 1979.
• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages ^{[self-published source][better source needed]}
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs