Sir Walter Forrest was a British Liberal, later Liberal National politician and businessman.
Background
Walter Forrest was the son of Sir William Forrest, a textile manufacturer of Aldringham, Roundhay, a district of Leeds. His father was a member of Pudsey Corporation and seven times Mayor of Pudsey.
Walter Forrest married first Kate Shillings of Pudsey. She died in 1913. They had one son.
He re-married in 1915, his second wife being Mary Macduff from Sheffield.
Forrest was a partner in his father"s woollen manufacturing business. He later developed business interests in a number of companies, including investment trusts and insurance as well as heavy industry.
Career
Forrest started his political career in local government. He also served as a Justice of the Peace. He held the seat until the 1922 general election when he was defeated by Tom Smith the Labour candidate.
He lost the seat in 1929, again to Labour.
In 1922 Forrest had briefly been Parliamentary private secretary to the Postmaster-General. Forrest was always proud of his Yorkshire birth and heritage.
He was of the Society of Yorkshiremen in London and also chaired the Yorkshire Society. In 1928, after the death of H H Asquith a memorial to the former Liberal prime minister in the form of a bronze bust and panel was unveiled in the Town Hall in Morley, where he had been born.
Membership
31st United Kingdom Parliament. 34th United Kingdom Parliament]
President of Pudsey Liberal Association in the 1890s, Forrest was a member of Pudsey Town Council in Yorkshire between 1900 and 1919, serving as Mayor from 1909 to 1912 and was later an Alderman. Between 1905 and 1919 he was a member of the West Riding County Council for Pudsey and Farsley.
Forrest entered Parliament at a by-election as a Coalition Liberal - that is a member of the Liberal Party supporting the Coalition with the Conservatives led by David Lloyd George - for the Pontefract division of Yorkshire in September 1919.
At the time of his death, just short of his 70th birthday, he was treasurer of the London Liberal National Party and a member of the National Executive of the Liberal National Council. The ceremony was attended by some members of Asquith’s family and Forrest, as the local Liberal Member of Parliament, placed a wreath on the memorial.
