Henry Walston, Baron Walston

Henry David Leonard George Walston, Baron Walston CVO, JP (16 June 1912 – 29 May 1991) was a British farmer, agricultural researcher and politician, firstly for the Liberal Party, then for Labour and for the Social Democratic Party.

The Right Honourable
The Lord Walston
CVO
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
In office
10 February 1961 – 29 May 1991
Life Peerage
Personal details
Born(1912-06-16)16 June 1912
Died29 May 1991(1991-05-29) (aged 78)
Political partyLiberal (until c. 1945)
Labour (c. 1945–81)
SDP (1981–88)
'Continuing' SDP (1988–90)
Spouses
  • Catherine Crompton
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1935; died 1978)​
  • Elizabeth Scott
    ​
    (m. 1979)​
Children6
Alma materKing's College, Cambridge

Life

Walston was born in 1912 to Sir Charles Waldstein (later Walston) and his wife Florence (née Einstein), and was educated at Eton College and King's College, Cambridge.[1] The scion of a wealthy German-American family, he was originally expected to follow his father, a Cambridge don and renowned archaeologist, into academic life, and upon receiving his degree he spent two years at Harvard University as a research fellow in bacteriology.[2] Ultimately, however, he chose to return to England, cultivating his estate in Thriplow, Cambridgeshire (2700 acres), and purchasing land further afield in St Lucia (3000 acres).[2][3]

Walston was appointed a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) in 1976 New Year Honours.[4] He was a Deputy Chairman and then Vice-President of the Royal Commonwealth Society, which he addressed in 1963,[5] and Governor of Guy's Hospital.

Family

Walston married Catherine Crompton (1916–1978) in 1935, in the USA.[6] Oliver Walston, a farmer and agricultural writer, is their second son.[7] From 1946 Catherine was the mistress of the author Graham Greene, who was also her godfather.[8][9] Walston demanded that the adulterous relationship cease after the 1951 publication of The End of the Affair, Greene's roman à clef, but it continued, ending by about 1966.[10] After Catherine's death, Walston married Elizabeth Scott, who had previously been the wife of Conservative MP Nicholas Scott.[11]

Press reports that Betty Boothroyd, who acted as Walston's secretary before herself entering politics, had been his mistress and also cared for his six children by Catherine, were the subject of a successful libel case brought by Boothroyd.[12]

In politics

Walston served as Member of the Huntingdonshire War Agricultural Committee (1939–45), Director of Agriculture for the British Zone of Germany (1946–47), Counsellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (1948–50), Agricultural Adviser for Germany to the Foreign Office (1964–67) and Chairman of the Institute of Race Relations (1968–71).

In the early 1940s he was selected as Liberal prospective parliamentary candidate for King's Lynn. In 1945 his booklet From Forces to Farming was published by the Liberal Party. The booklet called for state aided co-operative farming for ex-servicemen.[13] He did not contest King's Lynn, instead switching to contest Huntingdonshire later that year at the general election.

He never managed to become a member of parliament despite contesting seats five times: Huntingdonshire in 1945 for the Liberals; Cambridgeshire in 1951 and 1955 for Labour; and Gainsborough in the 1956 by-election and in 1959, again for Labour. On 10 February 1961 he was created a life peer as Baron Walston, of Newton in the County of Cambridge.[14] A supporter of Hugh Gaitskell, he was a member of the Campaign for Democratic Socialism.[15]

Junior minister

Walston served in the First Wilson ministry, as Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs from 20 October 1964 to the beginning of 1967.[16][17]

In internal Foreign Office discussion, Walston supported James Cable's line, that the USA should cut its losses in the Vietnam War, and argued that the UK should have a pro-active policy of seeking peace.[18] By the second half of 1965 Walston was in fact pushing this line harder than Cable himself.[19] In June 1966 Walston was passing through South Vietnam on an envoy mission, when he was contacted by Janusz Lewandowski, who said he was acting for the Polish government and attempting to find peace in the Vietnam War. Walston, however, treated this as a freelance approach.[20]

Following Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) Walston was envoy to Portugal, attempting to negotiate an end to sanction-breaking pumping of oil to Southern Rhodesia via Beira, Mozambique.[21] His diplomacy was overtaken by Security Council resolution 221 of 9 April 1966.[22] As a Foreign Office junior minister, Walston argued that the UK government should not grant Rhodesian independence except on terms of majority rule. While Rhodesia was the responsibility of the Commonwealth Relations Office, he maintained that UDI had increased the chances of communist penetration in Africa and that this was a proper concern of the Foreign Office.[23]

During this time at the Foreign Office, Walston was a trustee of one of John Collins's secret Christian Action trusts, channelling funds to the African National Congress.[24] He expressed very positive feelings about Fidel Castro.[25] Walston was then Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade, in 1967.[16]

Later political life

On a lecture tour of South Africa in 1968, Walston had private discussions with B. J. Vorster, and as a consequence attempted to open a channel of communication to Kenneth Kaunda.[26] He also visited Nelson Mandela on Robben Island, concluding that he was being well treated by his gaolers. During this period the South African government wished to broker a deal between the UK and Ian Smith, and to use Walston's contacts.[27]

Walston was a member of the Council of Europe between 1970 and 1975, and a Member of the European Parliament from 1975 to 1977. In the period from 1970 to 1976 several Labour politicians met at his apartment in The Albany, eventually forming a retrospectively-christened "Walston group" of pro-European MPs who were supportive of the leading right-wing figure in the party, Roy Jenkins.[28]

Along with most members of that group, Walston joined the Social Democratic Party (SDP) upon its foundation in 1981. Unusually for an associate of Jenkins, however, he chose not to support the SDP's merger with the Liberals in 1988, despite his former association with that party; instead he followed David Owen into the newly-formed 'continuing' SDP, becoming its first chief whip in the Lords.[1][29] Walston also became active during this time with the UN-accredited non-governmental organisation Agri-Energy Roundtable, and served as its vice-chairman for several years.

Pamphlets

Walston published political pamphlets on agricultural topics:

  • From Forces to Farming. A Plan for the Ex-Service Man (1944), Liberal Party Publication Department; as prospective Liberal Party candidate for King's Lynn.[30]
  • Land Nationalisation: For and Against (1958), Fabian Society Issue 312. With John Mackie.[31]
  • The Farmer and Europe (1962), Fabian Society. On planning for farming if the UK joined the Common Market.[32]
  • Agriculture under Communism (1962).[33]
  • Farm Gate to Brussels (1970), Fabian Society.[34]
  • Dealing with Hunger (1976).[35]

Arms
Coat of arms of Henry Walston, Baron Walston
Crest
Upon a rock an oak tree Proper between two wings Azure.
Escutcheon
Quarterly Or and Azure in chief two lions combatant and in base two similar lions counterchanged within a bordure Ermine.
Supporters
Dexter a farm labourer supporting by the exterior hand a sheaf of barley sinister a West Indian supporting likewise a stalk of bananas all Proper.[36]
Motto
Wachstum und Stetigkeit (Growth and Continuity)

See also

References
  • "Walston, Baron". Who's Who. Oxford University Press. December 2007. Retrieved 14 October 2012.
  • Norman Sherry (2004). The Life of Graham Greene. Vol. 3. Jonathan Cape. ISBN 978-0-224-05974-9.

Notes
  1. "Walston". Who's Who & Who Was Who. Vol. 2023 (online ed.). A & C Black. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. "Obituary: Lord Walston", The Times, 31 May 1991, p. 20.
  3. William D. Rubinstein; Michael Jolles; Hilary L. Rubinstein (2011). The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 1003. ISBN 978-1-4039-3910-4.
  4. "No. 46777". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 December 1975. p. 4.
  5. Lord Walston, Thoughts on Southern Africa, African Affairs Vol. 63, No. 250 (Jan. 1964), pp. 23–31. Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of The Royal African Society Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/719760
  6. Richard English (1998). Ernie O'Malley: IRA Intellectual. Oxford University Press. p. 190. ISBN 978-0-19-151339-8.
  7. Adam Nicolson (2009). Sissinghurst: An Unfinished History. HarperCollins Publishers Limited. pp. 308–9. ISBN 978-0-00-724055-5.
  8. Graham Greene: Fictions, Faith and Authorship. Continuum International Publishing Group. 2010. p. 112. ISBN 978-1-84706-339-7.
  9. Betty Boothroyd (2002). Betty Boothroyd Autobiography. Random House UK. p. 112. ISBN 978-0-09-942704-9.
  10. David Lodge (2012). The Practice of Writing. Random House. pp. 58–9. ISBN 978-1-4481-2985-0.
  11. Sherry, p. 624.
  12. Hartley-Brewer, Julia (23 March 2000). "Speaker wins £10,000 damages over sex slur". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 May 2013.
  13. "News in Brief." Times [London, England] 3 January 1945: 2. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 8 Sept. 2014.
  14. "No. 42274". The London Gazette. 10 February 1961. p. 1016.
  15. Hugh Wilford (2003). The CIA, the British Left and the Cold War: Calling the Tune?. Frank Cass. p. 297. ISBN 978-0-7146-5435-5.
  16. Betty Boothroyd (2002). Betty Boothroyd Autobiography. Random House UK. p. 116. ISBN 978-0-09-942704-9.
  17. William Roger Louis; Stephen R. Ashton (2004). East of Suez and the Commonwealth 1964–1971: Part 2: Europe, Rhodesia, Commonwealth. The Stationery Office. p. 200. ISBN 978-0-11-290583-7.
  18. Sylvia Ellis (2004). Britain, America, and the Vietnam War. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 54. ISBN 978-0-275-97381-0. Retrieved 2 May 2013.
  19. Sylvia Ellis (2004). Britain, America, and the Vietnam War. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 111–2. ISBN 978-0-275-97381-0. Retrieved 2 May 2013.
  20. James Hershberg (11 January 2012). Marigold: The Lost Chance for Peace in Vietnam. Stanford University Press. pp. 120–1. ISBN 978-0-8047-8388-0. Retrieved 2 May 2013.
  21. J. R. T. Wood (November 2012). 'A Matter of Weeks Rather Than Months': The Impasse Between Harold Wilson and Ian Smith: Sanctions, Aborted Settlements and War 1965–1969. Trafford Publishing. pp. 71–2. ISBN 978-1-4669-3410-8.
  22. Filipe De Meneses (2009). Salazar: A Political Biography. Enigma Books. p. 541 note 124. ISBN 978-1-929631-98-8.
  23. William Roger Louis; Stephen R. Ashton (2004). East of Suez and the Commonwealth 1964–1971: Part 1: East of Suez. The Stationery Office. pp. lxxiv–lxxv. ISBN 978-0-11-290582-0.
  24. Dennis Herbstein (2004). White Lies: Canon Collins and the Secret War Against Apartheid. James Currey Publishers. p. 222. ISBN 978-0-85255-885-0.
  25. Sherry, p. 449.
  26. Nolutshungu, Sam C (1975). South Africa in Africa: A Study in Ideology and Foreign Policy. Manchester University Press. p. 236 note 159. ISBN 978-0-7190-0579-4.
  27. Betty Boothroyd (2002). Betty Boothroyd Autobiography. Random House UK. p. 125. ISBN 978-0-09-942704-9.
  28. Patrick Bell (2012). The Labour Party in Opposition 1970–1974. Routledge. p. 407. ISBN 978-1-136-34687-3.
  29. "Jenkins to lead SLD", 18 March 1988, The Times, p. 4.
  30. From Forces to Farming. A Plan for the Ex-Service Man. by Harry Walston. Review by: G. M. R. International Affairs Vol. 21, No. 2 (Apr. 1945), p. 273. Published by: Wiley on behalf of the Royal Institute of International Affairs. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3016403
  31. John Mackie; Henry Walston, Baron Walston (1958). Land Nationalisation: For and Against. Fabian Society.
  32. Fabian Society 79th Annual Report, July 1961 – June 1962, p. 15; archive.org.
  33. Agriculture under Communism, by Lord Walston. Review by: Thomas Barman. International Affairs Vol. 39, No. 1 (Jan. 1963), p. 124. Published by: Wiley on behalf of the Royal Institute of International Affairs Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2610561
  34. Baron Henry David Leonard George Walston (1970). Farm gate to Brussels. Fabian Society. ISBN 9780716312888.
  35. Harry Walston (8 July 1976). Dealing with Hunger. Bodley Head. ISBN 9780370104645. Retrieved 2 May 2013.
  36. Debrett's Peerage. 1985. p. 1216.
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