Bob Walton

Robert Josiah Walton (8 December 1921 – 16 July 2008) was a New Zealand police officer who served as Commissioner of Police between 1978 and 1983. His tenure was marked by the end of the Bastion Point occupation, the Mount Erebus disaster, the 1981 Springbok tour, and the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the convictions of Arthur Allan Thomas for the murders of Harvey and Jeannette Crewe.

Born in Auckland on 8 December 1921, Walton was educated at Mount Albert Grammar School. During World War II, he saw service in the Middle East, Italy and Japan, and later served in the Royal New Zealand Army Service Corps (Territorials), retiring as colonel commandant in 1986. In the 1965 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Military). In 1977, he received the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal. In the 1979 New Year Honours, he was awarded the Queen's Police Medal, and in the 1983 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George.