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, 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 joined the British Army and after the outbreak of World War II he attended the Staff College, Camberley, where Brian Horrocks was among his instructors. 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 Chairman 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. The life barony became extinct on his death aged 81 in 1992 while he was succeeded in the hereditary baronetcy by his son Jonah.

Coat of arms of Derek Walker-Smith, Baron Broxbourne

Crest 1st out of a mural crown Gules masoned Or a mount Vert thereon a lion standant Argent holding in the dexter forepaw a sword pommel Proper pommel hilt and quillons also Or the blade environed by an oak branch fructed Gold (Smith), 2nd between two ostrich feathers Gules quilled Or a leg in armour Azure garnished Gold (Walker). Escutcheon Quarterly: 1st and 4th per fess Or and Argent a portcullis Sable throughout raised to the nombril point within a bordure per fess Gules and Or charged with tern acorns counter coloured (Smith); 2nd and 3rd per pale Azure and Gules a horse passant Argent hooved and crined Or between three caltrops Gold (Walker). Motto Legge Et Luce

Bibliography

• Horrocks, Sir Brian (1960). A Full Life. Barnsley: Leo Cooper. ISBN 0-85052-144-0.

Sources

• Times Guide to the House of Commons, 1979
• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs