Derek Walker-Smith, Baron Broxbourne

Derek Colclough Walker-Smith, Baron Broxbourne, TD, PC, QC (13 April 1910 – 22 January 1992), known as Sir Derek Walker-Smith, Bt, from 1960 to 1983, was a British Conservative Party politician.

By Godfrey Argent 1969

The son of Sir Jonah Walker-Smith (1874–1964) and his wife Maud, daughter of Coulton Walker Hunter,[1] Walker-Smith was educated at Rossall School and Christ Church, Oxford. He became a barrister, called to the bar by Middle Temple in 1934. He joined the British Army and after the outbreak of World War II he attended the Staff College, Camberley, where Brian Horrocks was among his instructors.[2] He was vice-chairman of the Inns of Court Conservative and Unionist Society and was made Queen's Counsel in 1955.

Walker-Smith was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hertford from 1945 to 1955, and East Hertfordshire from 1955 to 1983. He was Chairman of the 1922 Committee 1951–55. He held ministerial positions, including Economic Secretary to the Treasury (1956–57), at the Board of Trade (1955–56 and 1957), and Health (1957–59).

Walker-Smith was created a baronet, of Broxbourne in the County of Hertford, in 1960. On 21 September 1983, he was elevated to a life peerage as Baron Broxbourne, of Broxbourne in the County of Hertfordshire.[3] The life barony became extinct on his death aged 81 in 1992 while he was succeeded in the hereditary baronetcy by his son Jonah.