William Connoll Walker OBE (20 February 1929 – 6 June 2017), known as Bill Walker, was a British

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

politician who served as Deputy Chairman of the

Scottish Conservative Party The Scottish Conservative & Unionist Party ( gd, Pàrtaidh Tòraidheach na h-Alba, sco, Scots Tory an Unionist Pairty), often known simply as the Scottish Conservatives and colloquially as the Scottish Tories, is a centre-right political par ...

from 2000 until 2008. He was

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 o ...

(MP) for Perth and East Perthshire later Tayside North from

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. He never held any office in government and was one of the

Maastricht Rebels The Maastricht Rebels were British Members of Parliament (MPs) belonging to the then governing Conservative Party who refused to support the government of Prime Minister John Major in a series of votes in the House of Commons on the issue of t ...

against the embattled administration of John Major during the mid-1990s.

Air Cadets

Walker began his cadet career in 1942 with 1707 (Dundee) Squadron of the Air Training Corps (ATC). Joining the organisation just a year after its inception, he continued his affinity with the air cadets ever since. He went on to spend a total of nine years in full-time regular RAF service, doing National Service including tours in the Middle East and later started the new

Central Gliding School The Central Gliding School (CGS) is the Royal Air Force's primary institution for the training of gliding instructors for the instruction of Royal Air Force and Air Cadet personnel. It is administered under No. 2 Flying Training School and is ...

as a flight lieutenant. He has since held several different roles, many of which featured within the Air Cadet gliding fraternity, the largest gliding organisation in the world, culminating in his appointment in the 1990s as President of Air Cadet Gliding and in 2011 becoming the first officer of the RAFVR(T) to be appointed to the rank of group captain.

Parliamentary career

Walker stood at Dundee East in the October 1974 general election, coming third. He was first elected in the 1979 general election as the

for Perth and East Perthshire. In

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, he became MP for the newly formed Tayside North. Walker enjoyed wearing the kilt, and he was one of two MPs who deliberately wore it in Parliament one day in July 1982 to mark the 200th anniversary of the lifting of the ban on wearing tartan, imposed after the 1745 Jacobite rising. He was a staunch Eurosceptic who resigned as vice chair of the Scottish Conservatives in 1992 to vote against the Government's attempts to implement the

Maastricht Treaty The Treaty on European Union, commonly known as the Maastricht Treaty, is the foundation treaty of the European Union (EU). Concluded in 1992 between the then-twelve Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Communities, ...

. He became one of the

who repeatedly voted against the Government's attempts to ratify the treaty. In July 1993, despite being seriously ill, he flew down to London for a key vote on Maastricht and was kept hidden from the Government whips until the vote took place; his vote helped to inflict a defeat upon the Government. In 1994, Walker was implicated in the

Cash for Questions The "cash-for-questions affair" was a political scandal of the 1990s in the United Kingdom. It began in October 1994 when ''The Guardian'' newspaper alleged that London's most successful parliamentary lobbyist, Ian Greer of Ian Greer Associates ...

scandal that involved other Conservative MPs such as Neil Hamilton and

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. However, in Walker's case the matter was not taken further when it emerged that he had given the cash to charity. During his years in Parliament, Walker managed to get five Private Member's Bills passed, including the bill which became the Scotch Whisky Act 1988, which gave a boost to the Scottish whisky industry. Walker lost Tayside North when he was defeated by the SNP's John Swinney in

. He was elected Deputy Chairman of the Scottish Conservatives in June 2000. He was reelected in 2006, serving until 2008. He died on 6 June 2017 at the age of 88. He was survived by his widow Mavis (''née'' Lambert), who he married in 1956, as well as their three daughters (Clova, Fiona and Justine) and six grandchildren.

Publications

* ''Scotland and Unionism - The Way Forward'', by Bill Walker, M.P., & Dr. Mark Mayall, onservative Parliamentary Candidate for Livingston (UK Parliament constituency) in 1987], Conservative Monday Club Policy Paper, May 1988. * ''Scotland - Reversing the Tory Decline'', by Dr. Mark Mayall (Monday Club Chairman), Foreword by Bill Walker, M.P. Monday Club Policy Paper, February 1991.

References

External links

*
History of the constituency from Scottish Politics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, Bill 1929 births 2017 deaths OBE Politicians from Dundee Scottish Conservative Party MPs UK MPs 1979–1983 UK MPs 1983–1987 UK MPs 1987–1992 UK MPs 1992–1997 Scottish political writers Royal Air Force officers British Eurosceptics