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Dennis Walters

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This article is about the British politician. For the golfer, seeDennis Walters (golfer).

Dennis Walters
Member of ParliamentforWestbury
In office
1964-1992
Personal details
Born(1928-11-28)28 November 1928
Died2 October 2021(2021-10-02)(aged 92)
Political partyConservative
Spouse(s)
Vanora McIndoe
​
​
(m.1955;div.1969)​

Celia Sandys(div.1979)
Bridgett Shearer (div.2004)
Children5
EducationSt Catharine's College, Cambridge

Sir Dennis Murray WaltersMBE(28 November 1928 – 1 October 2021) was a BritishConservative Partypolitician who served as theMember of Parliament(MP) forWestburyfrom 1964 to 1992.[1][2]

Early life[edit]

The son of Douglas L. Walters and Clara Walters (néePomello), Walters was of English and Italian descent; he was brought up as aRoman Catholic.At the outbreak of theSecond World Warhe was in Italy and was interned, but after the Armistice of 1943 he was released and served for eleven months with theItalian Resistance.He then returned to England and was educated atDownside SchoolandSt Catharine's College, Cambridge,where he read Modern Languages as an Exhibitioner and completed anMA.[3][4]

Career[edit]

In the late 1950s, Walters was employed as personal assistant to the Conservative peerLord Hailshamthroughout his chairmanship of the Conservative Party.[5]

At the 1959 general election, Walters contestedBlythfor the Conservatives, fighting the seat again the next year at aby-electionafterAlf Robenswas appointed to theHouse of Lords.[6]In October 1962, he was selected as his party's candidate for the Conservative-heldsafe seatofWestbury,[7]which he represented asMember of Parliament(MP) for 28 years from 1964 onwards. During his early years in the Commons, he worked closely with Shadow Foreign SecretarySir Alec Douglas-Home,of whom he later wrote "I could not imagine a more considerate, fair, or civilised person to serve."[8]

Following theSix-Day Warof 1967, Walters visitedPalestinewith his parliamentary colleagueIan 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 ofMiddle East International,founded in 1971 byChristopher Mayhewwith "a mission to provide authoritative and independent news and analysis on the Middle East." A sympathiser with Arab interests, from 1970 to 1982 he was Chairman of theCouncil for the Advancement of Arab-British Understandingand from 1978 to 1981 joint Chairman of the Euro-Arab Parliamentary Association.[4]He was also a company director with interests in investment, advertising,public relationsand travel.

Establishment of the Conservative Middle East Council (CMEC)[edit]

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 theSix 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 theVenice Declarationof 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 aForeign Officeminister, the area in which his hopes lay, as in the shape of Gilmour,Margaret Thatcherwas willing to appoint one pro-Arab colleague, but not two.[13]

From 1965 to the 1990s, he served as a Governor of theBritish Institute of Florence.[4]Walters retired from parliament in 1992, to be succeeded as member for Westbury byDavid Faber.[2]

Honours[edit]

In 1960, Walters was appointedMBEfor political services.[4]He wasknightedin 1988, made a Commander of theNational Order of the Cedarof Lebanon in 1969, and aGrande Ufficiale of the Ordine al Merito Repubblica(Italy) in 2012.[2]

Personal life[edit]

Walters was married three times: firstly in 1955 to Vanora McIndoe, a daughter of the surgeonSir Archibald McIndoe(divorced 1969); secondly toCelia Sandys,daughter of the politicianDuncan 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 theBoodle's,HurlinghamandQueen'sclubs. 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[edit]

  • Not Always with the Pack.United Kingdom, Constable, 1989.ISBN9780094693104
  • Benedetti Inglesi Benedetti Italiani(Italian translation, revised edition), 1991.

References[edit]

  1. ^"Living former Members of the House of Commons"(PDF).researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk.7 January 2019.Retrieved13 June2021.
  2. ^abcde"Walters, Sir Dennis, (born 28 Nov. 1928)".WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO.doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u38783.ISBN978-0-19-954088-4.Archived fromthe originalon 4 May 2021.Retrieved4 May2021.
  3. ^Dennis Walters,Not Always With the Pack(London: Constable, 1989), p. 26et seq.
  4. ^abcdeCharles Roger Dod,Robert Phipps Dod,Dod's Parliamentary Companion 1991,p. 595
  5. ^Walters,op. cit.,p. 86.
  6. ^Walters,op. cit.,pp. 106–108
  7. ^Walters,op. cit.,p. 108
  8. ^Walters,op. cit.,p. 145
  9. ^Sami Hadawi,Bitter Harvest: a modern history of Palestine(1991), p. 147
  10. ^Alan Watkins,Brief lives: with some memoirs(1982), p. 51
  11. ^Sir Denis, Walters- Obituary (7 October 2021)."Sir Dennis Walters remembered".CMEC WEBSITE.Archivedfrom the original on 12 December 2021.Retrieved7 October2021.
  12. ^Venice, Declaration (13 June 1980)."The Venice Declaration"(PDF).Archived(PDF)from the original on 17 November 2017.
  13. ^Walters,op. cit.,p. 192
  14. ^Walters, Nicholas (4 October 2021)."Walters".The Telegraph Announcements.The Telegraph.Retrieved10 October2021.

Sources[edit]

External links[edit]

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of ParliamentforWestbury
1964–1992 		Succeeded by
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