Andrew Walker (politician)

Andrew Walker
2nd President of the Labour Party
In office 1917–1918
Vice President	Michael Joseph Savage
Leader	Alfred Hindmarsh
Preceded by	James McCombs
Succeeded by	Tom Paul
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Dunedin North
In office 1914–1919
Preceded by	George M. Thomson
Succeeded by	Edward Kellett
Personal details
Born	1855 North Berwick, Scotland
Died	10 July 1934 Lower Hutt, New Zealand
Political party	United Labour Party (1912–1916) Labour (1916–1934)
Religion	Baptist

Andrew Walker (1855 – 10 July 1934) was a New Zealand politician of the United Labour Party and then the Labour Party from Dunedin.

Early life

Walker was born in North Berwick, Scotland in 1855.^[1] He came to New Zealand in 1860.^[2] He attended school in Dunedin's Union Street, where Robert Stout was one of his teachers. He left school aged 14 to learn the trade of printing at the Evening Star. He became a prominent union leader.^[1] Walker made a name for himself serving as the secretary of the Otago Typographical Union where he acted as a mentor to younger members such as Kenneth McLean Baxter, leaving them with lasting commitments to the labour movement.^[3] He was also a Baptist dean and treasurer of Hanover Street Baptist Church.^[4]

Political career

He represented the Dunedin North electorate in Parliament from 1914 to 1919, when he was defeated by an Independent Labour candidate Edward Kellett.^[5] Walker was a protégé of Labour movement organizer Tom Paul, who did not contest a seat himself in the election, as he sat on the Legislative council, but must have felt vindicated after Walker's success.^[6]

In 1914 he won election, with Alfred Hindmarsh and Bill Veitch as the remnant of the United Labour Party,^[7] and in 1916 the remnant and the Socialist Party combined to form the Labour Party (NZLP).

Walker drew up the 1916 constitution and was the first secretary of the Labour Party caucus.^[8] He was the President of the NZLP but resigned in 1917 over the State Control issue, as he was a staunch prohibitionist. Between 1919 and 1920 he served as the Labour Party's whip.^[9] At the 1919 election, Walker was opposed by an "Independent" Labour candidate, Edward Kellett, for Dunedin North in a straight contest and Walker was defeated.^[5]

Later life

Walker retired to Wellington where some of his family lived. For some years, he lived in Fairview Crescent in Kelburn. For his last two years, he lived at 13 Melling Road in Lower Hutt with his daughter and son-in-law. He died at the Lower Hutt residence on 10 July 1934.^[1] and was buried at Taita Cemetery.^[10] He was survived by his wife and two daughters; another daughter had died in 1919.^[1]

Notes

References

• Gustafson, Barry (1980). Labour's path to political independence: the origins and establishment of the NZ Labour Party 1900–1919. Auckland, New Zealand: Auckland University Press. ISBN 0-19-647986-X. 
• Paul, J.T. (1946). Humanism in Politics: New Zealand Labour Party in Retrospect. Wellington, NZ: New Zealand Worker Printing and Publishing. 
• Wilson, James Oakley (1985) [First ed. published 1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 (4th ed.). Wellington: V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer. OCLC 154283103.