Career
Walter Mclaren was married in April 1883 to Eva Muller, who died on 16 August 1921. McLaren first stood for election to the House of Commons at the 1885 general election, when he stood as an "independent liberal" candidate for the Inverness district of Burghs, in Scotland. He had been nominated by the Free Church Constitutional Party, and polled strongly against the official Liberal Party candidate, taking 47.5% of the votes.
At the 1886 general election he was elected in Crewe, where the sitting Liberal Member of Parliament George Latham had not sought re-election.
McLaren was re-elected in 1892, but lost his seat at the 1895 general election.He did not stand in 1900, when the seat was regained for the Liberals by James Tomkinson, but when Tomkinson died shortly after being re-elected at the January 1910 election, McLaren was the successful Liberal candidate in the resulting by-election. He held the seat until his own death in 1912, aged 59.
Although the monument, lying on the east wall of the first south section under Edinburgh Castle, is huge, Walter is relegated to a simple footnote at the base of the stone.