Walter Padley

Who was Walter Padley?

Walter Ernest Padley was a British Labour politician.

Padley was educated at Chipping Norton Grammar School and Ruskin College, Oxford with a TUC scholarship. He was president of the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers 1948-1964.

During the Second World War he registered as a conscientious objector, 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.

Padley's first parliamentary contest was at the 1943 by-election in Acton, in which he was an Independent Labour Party candidate. In 1950 he was elected Labour Party Member of Parliament for Ogmore and served until 1979. He was Minister of State for Foreign Affairs from 1964 to 1967 and Labour Party chairman 1965-1966, having been on the National Executive Committee from 1956.