Walter Padley

Walter Ernest Padley (24 July 1916 - 15 April 1984) 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 (ILP) 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.

References

• Times Guide to the House of Commons October 1974
• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by John Evans	Member of Parliament for Ogmore 1950–1979	Succeeded by Ray Powell
Political offices
Preceded by New position	President of USDAW 1948–1964	Succeeded by Richard Seabrook
Preceded by Ray Gunter	Chair of the Labour Party National Executive Committee 1965–1966	Succeeded by John Boyd