Constituency : Plymouth 1861 - 74, Skipton 1886-92, 1895-1900 ( Liberal Unionist )
Walter chalked up another gain for the Liberals in October 1861 when he took the second Plymouth seat after the elevation of the sitting Tory to the Lords.
Walter was the son of a successful haberdashery merchant and banker and former MP for Ipswich. He was educated at Eton and Oxford. He had his own business interests in Argentine railways and land. He was a local philanthropist building and repairing churches and schools and a patron of the arts and archaeology. He gave the Bodleian Library its largest ever donation in real terms. He also built the chapel at Giggleswick School.
Walter was a champion of the co-operative movement. He was indecisive during the Second Reform Bill debate. He voted with Disraeli on passing the fine to settle the issue as soon as possible. He supported women's suffrage. In 1872 he introduced a bill for proportional representation.
Walter was defeated in 1874. He unsuccessfully contested City of London in 1880. He returned in 1886 as a Liberal Unionist for Skipton in which constituency he had his country seat at Malham Tarn. It was a notable victory by 134 votes against the sitting Liberal. He was ejected by a Gladstonian in 1892. He then had to deal with two separate allegations made by the West Yorkshire Pioneer , a local newspaper which claimed firstly that he was causing economic hardship to his tenants by importing Argentine food and secondly that he had reversed a rent concession after his defeat in the election. Walter eventually took them to court and won his case which no doubt helped him to win the seat back in 1895. He was defeated unexpectedly in 1900 and didn't stand again. It probably didn't help him that he was a poor orator.
It was at Walter's house that Charles Kingsley was inspired to write The Water Babies and the character of John Hartover is based on Walter.
He died in 1921 aged 85.
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