Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Walton, John Lawson
WALTON, Sir JOHN LAWSON (1852–1908), lawyer, born on 4 Aug. 1852, was son of John Walton, Wesleyan minister in Ceylon and at Grahamstown, South Africa, who became president of the Wesleyan conference in 1887 and died on 5 June 1904, aged 80. After receiving his early education at Merchant Taylors' School, Great Crosby, in Lancashire, John Walton matriculated in 1872 at London University, but did not graduate, and entering the Inner Temple as a student on 2 Nov. 1874, he was called to the bar on 13 June 1877. Joining the north-eastern circuit, he rose rapidly in the profession, taking silk in 1890, only thirteen years after his call. He was helped at starting by a strong connection among the Wesleyans, especially in the West Riding towns. A born advocate, persuasive, tactful, and adroit, Walton acquired as large a practice in London as on circuit. He first came into public notice in March 1896 by his victory over Sir Frank Lockwood [q. v. Suppl. I] in the action brought against Dr. William Smoult Playfair [q. v. Suppl. II] for libel and slander; the damages, 12,000l., were the largest that, up to that date, had been awarded by an English jury. His services were much in request on behalf of the trade unions, and he appeared for the respondents in the House of Lords in the case of Allen v. Flood (Law Reports, 1898, A.C. 1).
Walton was from his earliest years a keen pohtician, and in 1891 was chosen as the liberal candidate for Battersea; but rather than divide the party he withdrew his candidature in deference to the strong local claims of Mr. John Burns. At the general election of 1892 he contested Central Leeds unsuccessfully: at the bye-election, however, which followed the elevation of Sir Lyon Playfair [q. v. Suppl. I] to the peerage in the same year, he was returned for South Leeds, a seat which he held against all comers down to his death. During the ten years of unionist administration between 1895 and 1905 he played a prominent part in opposition; and though he carried his forensic style with him into parliament, his pleasant voice and carefully chosen language always procured him a ready hearing. A strong radical in domestic politics, especially where the House of Lords and the established church were concerned, he followed Mr. Asquith and Sir Edward Grey during the Boer War, and was a member of the short-lived liberal imperial party under Lord Rosebery. Though not himself a member of the Church of England, he took a lively interest in her affairs, and was a witness before the royal commission appointed in 1904 to inquire into ecclesiastical disorders; there he advocated a more effective procedure against clergy charged with breaking the law. On the formation of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman's government in December 1905 he was made attorney-general, and was knighted. The appointment was a result of Mr. (afterwards Viscount) Haldane's choice of the war office in preference to legal preferment. Though personally popular on all sides, Walton seemed never quite at home in his office. His attainments as a lawyer were neither deep nor varied, and ill-health interfered with his regular attendance in the House of Commons. One of his first duties as law officer was to introduce the trades disputes bill into the House of Commons; that measure, as originally drafted, made trade unions or their executive committees responsible for breaches of the law committed by their members. Walton's defence of this clause on 28 March 1906 caused much dissatisfaction in the ranks of the labour party, and on the second reading a month later, 25 April, the solicitor-general, Sir William Robson, announced that the clause would be abandoned in committee. This surrender on the part of the government did not tend to strengthen the attorney-general's position.
Walton died after a short illness at his house in Great Cumberland Place on 18 Jan. 1908. He was buried at Ellesborough, near Wendover in Buckinghamshire. He married on 21 Aug. 1882 Joanna M'Neilage, only daughter of Robert Hedderwick of Glasgow, by whom he had a family of one daughter and two sons. A caricature portrait by 'Spy' appeared in 'Vanity Fair' in 1902.
[The Times, 20 Jan. 1908 and 23 March et seq. 1896; Hansard, 4th series, cliv. 1295, civ. 1482.]