Walter Hamlet Johnson (21 November 1917 – 12 April 2003) was a British Labour Party politician.

Early life

Johnson was born in

Hertford Hertford ( ) is the county town of Hertfordshire, England, and is also a civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of the county. The parish had a population of 26,783 at the 2011 census. The town grew around a ford on the River Lea, ne ...

Political career

Before being elected, Johnson stood several times for Parliament without success. In the 1955 General Election he fought

Bristol West Bristol West is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom since 2015 by Thangam Debbonaire of the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party. It mostly covers ...

, but was defeated by the Conservative

Cabinet Minister A minister is a politician who heads a ministry, making and implementing decisions on policies in conjunction with the other ministers. In some jurisdictions the head of government is also a minister and is designated the ‘prime minister’, � ...

Walter Mockton. He contested South Bedfordshire in

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

, and a by-election at Acton in 1968 that was one of three Labour seats lost that day (in Johnson's case to the future Cabinet Minister Kenneth Baker). Following the retirement of Philip Noel-Baker as the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

, Johnson retained

Derby South Derby South () is a constituency formed of part of the city of Derby represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 1983 by veteran MP Margaret Beckett of the Labour Party. She has served under the Labour governments of Haro ...

at the 1970 general election for the Labour Party, and was an assistant government

whip A whip is a tool or weapon designed to strike humans or other animals to exert control through pain compliance or fear of pain. They can also be used without inflicting pain, for audiovisual cues, such as in equestrianism. They are generally e ...

from 1974 to 1975. He stood down as an MP at the

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

, after which he was succeeded by Margaret Beckett. Johnson was partly funded by the

Transport Salaried Staffs' Association The Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA) is a trade union for workers in the transport and travel industries in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Its head office is in London, and it has regional offices in Bristol, Derby, Dublin, Manche ...

. He was treasurer of that Association from 1965 to 1977.

Death

He died in

Haywards Heath Haywards Heath is a town in West Sussex, England, south of London, north of Brighton, south of Gatwick Airport and northeast of the county town, Chichester. Nearby towns include Burgess Hill to the southwest, Horsham to the northwest, Crawl ...

, aged 85.

References

*''Times Guide to the House of Commons 1979'' *

External links

* 1917 births 2003 deaths Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for constituencies in Derbyshire Presidents of the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association UK MPs 1970–1974 UK MPs 1974 UK MPs 1974–1979 UK MPs 1979–1983 People from Hertford Transport Salaried Staffs' Association-sponsored MPs {{England-Labour-UK-MP-stub