Walter Ernest Padley (24 July 1916 – 15 April 1984) was a British

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

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 ...

for Ogmore. He was also President of the

Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers The Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (Usdaw) is a trade union in the United Kingdom, consisting of around 360,000 members. Usdaw members work in a variety of occupations and industries including: shopworkers, factory and warehouse wo ...

from 1948 to 1964.

Early life

Walter Ernest Padley was born on 24 July 1916, the son of Ernest and Mildred Padley. In 1933, whilst still a teenager, he became active in a distributive workers' trade union. He was educated at

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and

Ruskin College, Oxford Ruskin College, originally known as Ruskin Hall, Oxford, is an independent educational institution in Oxford, England. It is not a college of Oxford University. It is named after the essayist, art and social critic John Ruskin (1819–1900) an ...

with a TUC scholarship. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he registered as a

conscientious objector A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to object ...

, but after appearances at both his Local and the Appellate Tribunals, he was permitted only exemption from combatant service, and was required to serve in the

Non-Combatant Corps The Non-Combatant Corps (NCC) was a corps of the British Army composed of conscientious objectors as privates, with NCOs and officers seconded from other corps or regiments. Its members fulfilled various non-combatant roles in the army during the ...

(NCC).

Political career

Padley was a member of the National Council of the

Independent Labour Party The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidates ...

from 1940 to 1946. During this time, he contested the 1943 by-election in

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, in which he was an (ILP) candidate, coming a distant second to the Conservative candidate. There was no Labour Party candidate, due to a pact between members of the wartime coalition. In 1950, Padley was elected as the Labour

for the party's

safe seat A safe seat is an electoral district (constituency) in a legislative body (e.g. Congress, Parliament, City Council) which is regarded as fully secure, for either a certain political party, or the incumbent representative personally or a combinat ...

of Ogmore, and served until the 1979 general election. He was a member of the party's

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from 1956 to 1979. In Parliament, he was Minister of State for Foreign Affairs from 1964 to 1967. Padley was also

Chairman of the Labour Party The Chair of the Labour Party is a position in the Labour Party of the United Kingdom. The Chair is responsible for administration of the party and overseeing general election campaigns, and is typically held concurrently with another position. ...

from 1965 to 1966, and its Overseas Committee from 1963 to 1971.

Personal life and death

In 1942, he married Sylvia Elsie Wilson; they had a son and daughter. He lived in

Highgate Highgate ( ) is a suburban area of north London at the northeastern corner of Hampstead Heath, north-northwest of Charing Cross. Highgate is one of the most expensive London suburbs in which to live. It has two active conservation organisati ...

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, and died on 15 April 1984, aged 67.

Bibliography

* ''The Economic Problem of the Peace'' London: Gollancz (1944) * Marcus Aurelius (pen name) ''Am I My Brother's Keeper?'' London: Gollancz (1945) * ''Britain: Pawn or Power?'' London: Gollancz (1947) * ''Soviet Russia: Free Union or Empire?'' Bombay: National Info. & Publications (1947)

References

*''Times Guide to the House of Commons October 1974'' * {{DEFAULTSORT:Padley, Walter 1916 births 1984 deaths Alumni of Ruskin College Welsh Labour Party MPs Independent Labour Party National Administrative Committee members British trade unionists UK MPs 1950–1951 UK MPs 1951–1955 UK MPs 1955–1959 UK MPs 1959–1964 UK MPs 1964–1966 UK MPs 1966–1970 UK MPs 1970–1974 UK MPs 1974 UK MPs 1974–1979 British conscientious objectors Chairs of the Labour Party (UK) Personnel of the Non-Combatant Corps Ministers in the Wilson governments, 1964–1970