Sir Samuel Walker, 1st Baronet

Sir Samuel Walker, 1st Baronet PC, QC (19 June 1832 – 13 August 1911) was an Irish Liberal politician and lawyer.

Born at Gore Port Finea County Westmeath, he was educated at Portarlington School and Trinity College, Dublin before being called to the bar in 1855. In 1872, he was made a Queen's Counsel, and eleven years later he became Ireland's Solicitor General. The following year, he was elected Liberal Member of Parliament for Londonderry, a seat he held for little more than a year before the constituency was divided, and in 1885 he was also for a period the island's Attorney-General.

An advocate for Home Rule, Walker remained within the Liberal Party after its split, and was eventually appointed Lord Chancellor of Ireland when Gladstone returned to power in 1892. When Lord Rosebery's ministry fell three years later, he was made a Lord Justice of Appeal, and remained in this capacity until his reappointment as Lord Chancellor by the Liberal government in 1905. He was created a baronet the following year, and died in office in Dublin in 1911. He was one of a remarkable group of Irish judges, including Christopher Palles, Hugh Holmes, and Gerald Fitzgibbon, who gave the Irish Court of Appeal, between approximately the years 1890-1910, a reputation for judicial eminence which has probably not been equalled by any other Irish Court.

His brother was General Sir Mark Walker VC KCB.

References

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs
• Leigh Rayment's List of Baronets

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Samuel Walker