Walter Walker (British Army Officer) - Politics

Politics

Walker then began giving television interviews and then took part in a documentary named A Day in the Life of a General which was never aired due to security reasons, although Walker believed it was banned because he was "revealing the true state of affairs which the politicians are hiding from the public".

By 1974 Walker had grown "shocked" by the state of the country in general and the "militancy" of the trade unions in particular. In July of that year he wrote a letter to The Daily Telegraph calling for "dynamic, invigorating, uplifting leadership ... above party politics" which would "save" the country from "the Communist Trojan horse in our midst". After the publication of this letter Walker claimed he received positive responses from Admiral of the Fleet Sir Varyl Begg, Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir John Slessor, a few British generals, ex-MPs, the Goon comedian Michael Bentine and the shipping industrialist Lord Cayzer.

Shortly after this letter the London Evening News (now defunct) gave Walker a front-page interview and asked him if he could imagine a situation in which the army could take over Britain. Walker responded: "Perhaps the country might choose rule by the gun in preference to anarchy", although Walker always argued he hated the idea of a military government in Britain.

By August 1974 Walker had joined the anti-Communist Unison group (later renamed to Civil Assistance) which claimed would supply volunteers in the event of a general strike. Walker claimed it had at least 100,000 members, which led Defence Secretary Roy Mason to interrupt his holiday by condemning this "near fascist groundswell". In 1975 Walker travelled to various boardrooms in the City of London in the hope of securing money and support. After Margaret Thatcher was elected Leader of the Conservative Party Walker and Civil Assistance faded from the media although he still travelled abroad, notably to Rhodesia and South Africa.

Walker privately told journalists that he thought Harold Wilson was a "proven Communist" and that there was a "Communist cell" in Downing Street. He advocated Enoch Powell as Prime Minister and favoured "tougher" measures against the IRA. He was an early member of the Conservative Monday Club and in 1984 became, until his death, Patron of the ultra-conservative, anti-communist and anti-Marxist pressure-group, the Western Goals Institute.

In 1980 his book The Next Domino?, with a foreword by Monday Club MP Julian Amery, was first published simultaneously in the UK, the US, and South Africa. In the 1980s, Walker's health began to decline and he underwent two hip operations in military hospitals. They left him permanently disabled which led to Walker suing the Ministry of Defence in 1990. The suit was eventually settled out of court.