Lt Col Sir Walter Dorling Smiles CIE DSO DL (8 November 1883 – 31 January 1953) was a Northern Irish politician.
Sir Walter was the son of William Holmes Smiles, director of Belfast Ropeworks, and grandson of Samuel Smiles. Sir Walter served during the First World War and, in the 1920s, managed a tea estate in Assam, there he became involved in local government and was a member of the Assam Legislative Council.
Member of Parliament for Blackburn from 1931 to 1945. Smiles was re-elected in 1935 but stood for Down in Northern Ireland at the 1945 Westminster election, as a Unionist. The two-seat constituency was split in 1950 into North Down and South Down. Smiles won North Down that year and remained its MP until his death in 1953; he lost his life in the sinking of the MV Princess Victoria off Larne Lough, in the Great Storm. He was succeeded by his daughter, Patricia Ford. He was the great-grandfather of explorer Bear Grylls.[1]
References
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Mary Agnes Hamilton and Thomas Harry Gill |
Member of Parliament for Blackburn 1931–1945 Served alongside: George Sampson Elliston |
Succeeded by Barbara Castle and Lewis John Edwards |
| Preceded by James Little and Viscount Castlereagh |
Member of Parliament for Down 1945–1950 Served alongside: James Little 1945–1946 C. H. Mullan 1946–1950 |
Constituency divided |
| New constituency | Member of Parliament for Down, North 1950–1953 |
Succeeded by Patricia Ford |
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