Walter Smith (British politician)

Smith was president of the Norwich Union of Clickers and Roughstuff Cutters in 1893, and when that organisation was merged in the National Union of Boot and Shoe Operatives in 1894, Smith became the part-time president of the Norwich branch, a position he held until his election as national organiser in 1916. He was member of Norwich City Council and honorary president of the National Union of Agricultural Workers from 1911 to 1923. He also served as president of Norwich Trades Council from 1904 until 1917, and was the first president of the International Landworkers' Federation.{{cite book |last1=Griffiths |first1=Clare |title=Labour and the Countryside |date=2007 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=9780199287437|page=360}}

Smith was the first Labour MP who was elected for Wellingborough. He represented the division from 1918 to 1922. He represented his native city of Norwich in between 1923 and 1924, and again in from 1929 to 1931. In 1924 he was Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries in the First MacDonald ministry. The next year he replaced John Stirling-Maxwell as member of the Forestry Commission.{{cite news |title=FORESTRY COMMISSIONER|work=Aberdeen Journal |date=26 February 1925 |access-date=17 November 2015 |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000577/19250226/081/0007| via = British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription }} In the Second MacDonald ministry Smith was Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade (1929–31). He was chairman of the Labour Party in 1934, and the following year Smith was announced as a member of the newly created Herring Industry Board.{{cite news |title=EIGHT MEN—THE HERRING INDUSTRY'S FATE IN THEIR HANDS|work=Hull Daily Mail |date=8 March 1935 |access-date=18 November 2015 |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000324/19350308/200/0024| via = British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription }}

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• {{Hansard-contribs | mr-walter-smith | Walter Smith }}

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{{s-par|uk}}

{{S-new | constituency }}

{{s-ttl

| title = Member of Parliament for Wellingborough

| years = 1918–1922

}}

{{s-aft | after = Geoffrey Shakespeare }}

{{Succession box

| title = Member of Parliament for Norwich

| with = Dorothy Jewson

| years = 1923–1924

| before = Hilton Young and
George Henry Roberts

| after = Hilton Young and
J. Griffyth Fairfax

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{{Succession box

| title = Member of Parliament for Norwich

| with = Geoffrey Shakespeare

| years = 1929–1931

| before = Hilton Young and
J. Griffyth Fairfax

| after = George Hartland and
Geoffrey Shakespeare

}}

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{{s-bef|before=Joseph Compton}}

{{s-ttl|title=Chair of the Labour Party|years=1933–1934}}

{{s-aft|after=William Albert Robinson}}

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{{succession box | before=The Earl of Ancaster | title=Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries | years=1924 | after=The Lord Bledisloe}}

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{{succession box|title=President of the National Union of Agricultural Workers|years=1911–1923|before=George Nicholls|after=Bill Holmes}}

{{succession box|title=Auditor of the Trades Union Congress|years=1920|with=William Straker|before=John Robertson and Ben Smith|after=David Grenfell and Samuel Lomax}}

{{succession box|title=President of the International Landworkers' Federation|years=1920–1924|before=New position|after=Joseph Forbes Duncan}}

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Category:1872 births

Category:1942 deaths

Category:UK MPs 1918–1922

Category:UK MPs 1923–1924

Category:UK MPs 1929–1931

Category:Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies

Category:National Union of Boot and Shoe Operatives-sponsored MPs

Category:Presidents of the National Union of Agricultural and Allied Workers

Category:People from Wellingborough

Category:Politicians from Norwich

Category:Place of birth missing

Category:Chairs of the Labour Party (UK)

Category:Parliamentary Secretaries to the Board of Trade

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