Walter Smiles

{{Short description|Irish politician}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2016}} {{Use British English|date=August 2016}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = | name = Walter Smiles | honorific_suffix = | image = | order = | office = Member of Parliament for North Down | term_start = 23 February 1950 | term_end = 31 January 1953 | predecessor = Constituency recreated John Morrow Simms (1922) | successor = Patricia Ford | office2 = Member of Parliament for Down | term_start2 = 5 July 1945 | term_end2 = 3 February 1950 | predecessor2 = Viscount Castlereagh | successor2 = Constituency Abolished Himself (North Down) | office3 = Member of Parliament for Blackburn | term_start3 = 27 October 1931 | term_end3 = 15 June 1945 | predecessor3 = Mary Hamilton | successor3 = Barbara Castle | birth_name = Walter Dorling Smiles | birth_date = {{Birth date |1883|11|08|df=y}} | birth_place = Belfast, Ireland | death_date = {{Death date and age|1953|01|31|1883|11|08|df=y}} | death_place = Donaghadee, Northern Ireland | party = Ulster Unionist Party | majority = | alma_mater = | spouse = | children = Patricia | profession = Soldier }}

Lieutenant-Colonel '''Sir Walter Dorling Smiles''' CIE DSO & Bar 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.

During the First World War; he obtained a pilots certificate but due to the lack of aircraft he transferred to Royal Naval Armoured Car Division. In 1915 he joined the British Armoured Car Expeditionary Force which was seconded to the Imperial Russian Army to fight against Turkish forces in the Caucasus Campaign. In 1918 he had reached the rank of lieutenant commander and was highly decorated; he received the DSO in 1916, with bar in 1917 and a MID, along with Russian and Romanian decorations; such as the St George of the 4th class.<ref>Grylls, Bear, '' Mud, Sweat and Tears'', Channel 4, 2012 {{ISBN|1905026498}} {{ISBN|978-1905026494}}</ref> He was Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) 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 {{MV|Princess Victoria}} off Larne Lough, in the Great Storm. He was succeeded by his daughter, Patricia Ford. He is the great-grandfather of explorer Bear Grylls.<ref>[http://www.thepeerage.com/p24749.htm#i247489 thepeerage.com]</ref>

== References == {{reflist}}

== External links == * {{Hansard-contribs | lieut-colonel-sir-walter-smiles | Sir Walter Smiles }}

{{s-start}} {{s-par|uk}} {{s-bef | before = Mary Hamilton | before2 = Thomas Gill }} {{s-ttl | title = Member of Parliament for Blackburn | with = George Elliston | years = 1931–1945 }} {{s-aft | after = Barbara Castle | after2 = John Edwards }} {{s-bef | before = James Little | before2 = Viscount Castlereagh }} {{s-ttl | title = Member of Parliament for Down | years = 1945–1950 | with = James Little 1945–1946 | with2 = C. H. Mullan 1946–1950 }} {{s-non | reason = Constituency divided}} {{s-new | constituency}} {{s-ttl | title = Member of Parliament for Down, North | years = 1950–1953 }} {{s-aft | after = Patricia Ford }} {{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smiles, Walter Dorling}} Category:1883 births Category:1953 deaths Category:Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Down constituencies (since 1922) Category:UK MPs 1931–1935 Category:UK MPs 1935–1945 Category:UK MPs 1945–1950 Category:UK MPs 1950–1951 Category:Knights Bachelor Category:Royal Navy personnel of World War I Category:Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Category:Companions of the Order of the Indian Empire Category:People educated at Rossall School Category:Politics of Blackburn with Darwen Category:Deaths due to shipwreck at sea Category:Accidental deaths in Northern Ireland Category:Ulster Unionist Party MPs