WALKER-SMITH, Hon Sir (John) Jonah 2nd Bt 1939-2024
Richard R
He was s of the LP Baron BROXBOURNE 1st Bt 1910-92 and Dorothy Ellen Mary 1906-99 d of Capt Louis John Walpole ETHERTON 1875-1942 sometime head of that gentry family of Greentree Hall and Bertha Mary 1882-1969 d of John BAGGE of Bridport and Mary NAGEL. He m 1974 Aileen Marie d of Joseph SMITH, and had a son and a dau as above. His son succeeds him.
Sir DAN(IEL) DEREK
Walker-Smith 3rd Bt has yet to establish claim, b 26 March 1980: m
2018, Dr Hayley STEWART and has issue
SONS LIVING
Alexander (Sasha) Jonah William, b 2017 reg Q4 2017 Lambeth (not clear why DPB online says b 2018).
NATHANIEL (Nate) ARTHUR V. b 2019 reg Q3 Lambeth
SISTER LIVING
Charmian Lucinda, b 1977: m 2015, John Sébastien Collett, and has issue living, Tessa Rosemarie COLLETT-SMITH, b 2016 reg Q2 Camden & Romi(lie) Deborah COLLETT-SMITH b 2019 reg Q2 Islington (not in DPB online)
See the following thread for discussion on birth date of the new Bt’s 1st son: https://groups.google.com/g/peerage-news/c/WFzjr-VohmI/m/TqXik5nuAwAJ
I’m off to the British Library this afternoon and will, if I’ve time, check the new Bt’s 2018 marriage and these birth registrations. (It’s a very time consuming way of searching the GRO, as I’m sure anyone will appreciate who’s had to handle these fiches and the reader machine!)
Richard R
SONS LIVING
ALEXANDER (Sasha) JONAH WILLIAM b 2017 reg Lambeth in Dec 2017 GRO No 516530570 (not clear why DPB online says b 2018).
Nathaniel (Nate) Arthur V. b 2019 reg Lambeth Sep 2019 GRO No 519566662
bx...@yahoo.com
Richard R
Obit in the Times of 22 March 2024:
E X T R A C T
Sir Jonah Walker-Smith Bt obituary: Barrister who influenced Keir Starmer
He defended in the Oz magazine trial with writer John Mortimer and as a Tory councillor took on Dame Shirley Porter
Jonah Walker-Smith was always concerned about the plight of the poor or vulnerable. When defending a homeless man one day, the barrister burst into song, giving the judge a rendition of Ralph McTell’s Streets of London to illustrate the hardships of those sleeping rough. He was never averse to a touch of theatricality to make his point to a jury.
He also believed passionately that everyone — no matter how repellent the crime or the person — deserved the right to a fair trial. It underpinned his work as a legal aid defence barrister for almost the entirety of his 50-year career…
…That philosophy of life endeared him to many at the criminal Bar, not least the leading lights of the liberal left. They included Keir Starmer, now the leader of the Labour Party, who said recently that he had learnt much from Walker-Smith when starting out; Geoffrey Robertson KC; and the late John Mortimer, QC and writer.
He got on particularly well with Mortimer, who oversaw the young Walker-Smith’s training as his pupil-master...
…Walker-Smith, a strong libertarian, was a Conservative — sitting on Westminster city council from 1968 to 1983. He became deputy leader and fought Dame Shirley Porter for the leadership. She beat him by only one vote. But notwithstanding his politics, it was Walker-Smith whom Robertson invited to join with him and Helena Kennedy (now Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws) in the founding of Doughty Street Chambers, which became a leading left-wing set…
“His Conservative credentials made him a favourite of the Met Police for its prosecution briefs,” Robertson recalled. “But he preferred to act for the defence — one reason why he accepted my invitation to join Doughty Street when I founded it in 1990. His position at least refuted any idea that we were a nest of ‘leftie lawyers’.” He added: “We did, of course, have the young Keir Starmer as well.”
One solicitor friend remembered Walker-Smith’s ability to mingle with people of all kinds and from across politics. “He used to hold parties at which the traditional Conservatives would mix with the movers and shakers of the counterculture. That was typical of Joe, who was a charming, gregarious and generous man. He was full of positivity. He was also extremely inclusive and was always at pains to see that everyone felt involved and comfortable.”
John Jonah Walker-Smith, always known as Jonah or Joe, was born in 1939 in Witney, Oxfordshire, to where his heavily pregnant mother had moved when war was declared, staying at the Rose Revived pub. Dorothy Walker-Smith (née Etherton) was an actress whose stage name was Dorothy Dale, known to the family as DiDi. His father was Derek Walker-Smith, Lord Broxbourne, a barrister specialising in property law and later a Tory MP for Hertford and a health minister; he was created a baronet in 1960 and elevated to a life peerage in 1983…
…He met Aileen Marie (née Smith) through a community project group meeting. She was a social worker and lecturer in social policy at North East London Polytechnic. They lived in Bayswater, west London, in the same house for 40 years, which was the hub of many parties and had constant guests and lodgers. She survives him with their two children: Charmian, who works in communications for healthcare and charities, and Dan, a public relations consultant. There are four grandchildren on whom Walker-Smith (“Dodo”) doted…
…With both his father and grandfather having been politicians (the latter, also named Sir Jonah Walker-Smith, was an engineer and Conservative MP for Barrow-in-Furness from 1931 to 1945), politics was a natural path. He became a Conservative councillor in 1968 and once stood unsuccessfully as a parliamentary candidate for Newcastle Central. But despite his political lineage, he was not party-political — principles mattered more than party affiliation…
…Walker-Smith died suddenly at the family home in Bayswater, a place he loved, always insisting that he never wanted to move from there. He joked that he would only ever leave “feet first” — a wish, poignantly, he achieved.
Sir Jonah Walker-Smith Bt, defence barrister and Conservative councillor, was born on September 6, 1939. He died of a suspected pulmonary embolism on March 9, 2024, aged 84
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/sir-jonah-walker-smith-obituary-death-8rdf8htbv
