14 Facts About Cecil Walker

Sir Alfred Cecil Walker was an Ulster Unionist Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for North Belfast from 1983 to 2001.

Cecil Walker was educated at Everton Elementary School, Model Boys' School, and Belfast Methodist College.

Cecil Walker worked for the Belfast timber trader James P Corry after leaving school in 1941 until he was elected to Parliament in 1983.

Cecil Walker became actively involved in Unionist politics in the 1970s, was an unsuccessful pro-White Paper Unionist candidate at the election to the 1973 Northern Ireland Assembly and was elected to Belfast City Council in 1977.

Cecil Walker contested the Belfast North constituency in the 1979 general election, narrowly losing to John McQuade of the Democratic Unionist Party.

Cecil Walker won the seat 4 years later, in the 1983 general election, after McQuade retired.

Cecil Walker was one of the MPs with the lowest attendance rate at Westminster.

Cecil Walker was re-elected at a by-election in January 1986.

Cecil Walker's 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 Fein and the Social Democratic and Labour Party - although this was partly because there had been no DUP candidate in the previous general election.

Cecil Walker was noted for the moderation of his Unionist views, which contrasted with the deep sectarian divisions in his constituency.

Cecil Walker 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, 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".

Cecil Walker was created a Knight Bachelor in the Queen's Birthday Honours in June 2002.

Cecil Walker lived in Glengormley, in County Antrim, and died of a heart attack in Newtownabbey.

Cecil Walker was survived by his wife and their two sons.