Editing Cecil Walker (section)

== Biography ==
Walker was born in [[Belfast]]. His father was a [[police constable]]. He was educated at Everton Elementary School, Model Boys' School, and [[Belfast Methodist College]]. He worked for the Belfast timber trader James P. Corry after leaving school in 1941 until he was elected to Parliament in 1983. He married Ann Verrant in 1953. They had two sons.<ref name="teleobit">{{cite news|title=Obituary|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1538560/Sir-Cecil-Walker.html|accessdate=4 August 2017|newspaper=The Telegraph|date=5 January 2007}}</ref><ref name="Indyobit">{{cite news|title=Obituary|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/sir-cecil-walker-430847.html|accessdate=4 August 2017|newspaper=The Independent|date=5 January 2007}}</ref>

He became actively involved in Unionist politics in the 1970s, was an unsuccessful pro-White Paper Unionist candidate at the election to the [[Northern Ireland Assembly (1973)|1973 Northern Ireland Assembly]] and was elected to [[Belfast City Council]] in 1977.<ref>[http://www.ark.ac.uk/elections/cnb.htm Northern Ireland elections]</ref>  He contested the [[Belfast North (UK Parliament constituency)|Belfast North]] constituency in the [[1979 United Kingdom general election|1979 general election]], narrowly losing to [[John McQuade]] of the [[Democratic Unionist Party]].  He won the seat 4 years later, in the [[1983 United Kingdom general election|1983 general election]], after McQuade retired. He was one of the MPs with the lowest attendance rate at Westminster.{{citation needed|date=November 2015}}

Along with all other Unionist MPs, he resigned his seat in December 1985 in protest at the [[Anglo-Irish Agreement]].  He was re-elected at a [[by-election]] in January 1986. In 1988, he advocated [[internment]] of [[Provisional Irish Republican Army]] (IRA) suspects to stem a series of murders, but also argued for the internment of suspects connected with the [[Ulster Defence Association]] and the [[Ulster Volunteer Force (1966)|Ulster Volunteer Force]]. In 1998, he was one of only two UUP MPs to support the [[Good Friday Agreement]] without reservation, and he backed UUP leader [[David Trimble]] until the end of Trimble's own political career in 2005.{{citation needed|date=November 2015}}

However, he lost his own seat to [[Nigel Dodds]] of the [[Democratic Unionist Party|DUP]] in the [[2001 United Kingdom general election|2001 general election]], following a disastrous televised debate at [[Crumlin Road Courthouse]] in his constituency, in which he stumbled over some of the most rudimentary questions.  His vote declined from 21,000 to 4,000, his 13,000 majority was transformed into a 6,000 majority for the DUP and he was beaten into fourth place behind [[Sinn Féin]] and the [[Social Democratic and Labour Party]] (SDLP) - although this was also partly because there had been no DUP candidate in the previous general election.<ref name="teleobit" /><ref name="Indyobit" />

He was noted for the moderation of his Unionist views, which contrasted with the deep sectarian divisions in his constituency.  He said he would have no objection to amending the [[Act of Settlement 1701]] to allow the heir to the throne to marry a [[Roman Catholic]],<ref name="teleobit" /> and caused controversy in 2001 by saying that a [[united Ireland]] in 30 years time may not be a bad thing, though he later said that was a "throwaway line that has been taken out of context".<ref name="teleobit" />  He was created a [[Knight Bachelor]] in the Queen's Birthday Honours in June 2002.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=56595|page=1 |date=14 June 2002}}</ref>