Walter Smith (British politician)

British politician (1872–1942)

Walter Robert Smith (7 May 1872 – 25 February 1942) was a Labour Member of Parliament (MP) who represented Wellingborough and Norwich. He was an organiser with the National Union of Boot and Shoe Operatives.

Early career

Smith was president of the Norwich Union of Clickers and Roughstuff Cutters in 1893, and when that organisation was merged in the National Union of Boot and Shoe Operatives in 1894, Smith became the part-time president of the Norwich branch, a position he held until his election as national organiser in 1916. He was member of Norwich City Council and honorary president of the National Union of Agricultural Workers from 1911 to 1923. He also served as president of Norwich Trades Council from 1904 until 1917, and was the first president of the International Landworkers' Federation.

Political career

Smith was the first Labour MP who was elected for Wellingborough. He represented the division from 1918 to 1922. He represented his native city of Norwich in between 1923 and 1924, and again in from 1929 to 1931. In 1924 he was Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries in the First MacDonald ministry. The next year he replaced John Stirling-Maxwell as member of the Forestry Commission. In the Second MacDonald ministry Smith was Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade (1929–31). He was chairman of the Labour Party in 1934, and the following year Smith was announced as a member of the newly created Herring Industry Board.

References

Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "N" (part 3)
Mair, Robert Henry (1922). Debrett's House of Commons, and the judicial bench. p. 148. Retrieved 23 January 2011.
^ "DEATH OF MR. W. R. SMITH". Northampton Mercury. 27 February 1942. Retrieved 17 November 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.
Griffiths, Clare (2007). Labour and the Countryside. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 360. ISBN 9780199287437.
"FORESTRY COMMISSIONER". Aberdeen Journal. 26 February 1925. Retrieved 17 November 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.
"EIGHT MEN—THE HERRING INDUSTRY'S FATE IN THEIR HANDS". Hull Daily Mail. 8 March 1935. Retrieved 18 November 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.

External links

Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Walter Smith

Parliament of the United Kingdom
New constituency	Member of Parliament for Wellingborough 1918–1922	Succeeded byGeoffrey Shakespeare
Preceded byHilton Young and George Henry Roberts	Member of Parliament for Norwich 1923–1924 With: Dorothy Jewson	Succeeded byHilton Young and J. Griffyth Fairfax
Preceded byHilton Young and J. Griffyth Fairfax	Member of Parliament for Norwich 1929–1931 With: Geoffrey Shakespeare	Succeeded byGeorge Hartland and Geoffrey Shakespeare
Party political offices
Preceded byJoseph Compton	Chair of the Labour Party 1933–1934	Succeeded byWilliam Albert Robinson
Political offices
Preceded byThe Earl of Ancaster	Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries 1924	Succeeded byThe Lord Bledisloe
Trade union offices
Preceded byGeorge Nicholls	President of the National Union of Agricultural Workers 1911–1923	Succeeded byBill Holmes
Preceded byJohn Robertson and Ben Smith	Auditor of the Trades Union Congress 1920 With: William Straker	Succeeded byDavid Grenfell and Samuel Lomax
Preceded byNew position	President of the International Landworkers' Federation 1920–1924	Succeeded byJoseph Forbes Duncan

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