David Walter

David Charles Walter (1 February 1948 – 29 March 2012), was a British journalist and a former Political Correspondent for Independent Television News programmes on ITV from 1980 to 1986, then on ITN's Channel 4 News from 1986 to 1988, followed by Paris Correspondent for BBC News, a BBC television and radio producer and presenter, and a Liberal Democrat contender for a seat in the British Parliament (Torridge and West Devon, 2005). He was a direct descendant of John Walter (1738/9 – 1812), the founder of The Times newspaper, whilst his mother was a cousin of former Home Secretary William Whitelaw.

Early life David Walter was born on 1 February 1948, in Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland. He had a younger brother, Christopher. His father was a district officer

Education Walter was educated at Charterhouse School, a boarding independent school for boys in the market town of Godalming in Surrey, followed by Trinity College, Oxford, to both of which he won scholarships. At Oxford, he studied Classics and became President of the Oxford Union. He was then awarded a Kennedy Memorial Scholarship to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (often abbreviated to M.I.T.) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a public relations and media company that taught media skills, and had a wide number of British and overseas clients. His former boss at ITN, and 18 years his senior, the Political Editor Julian Haviland, himself described by colleagues as one of the nicest people to have ever worked in television journalism, said of him: "The man I think of first was in rare measure gentle, kind, modest, loyal, generous... a joy to work with". He went on to describe Walter's "sense of fun and joie de vivre", and that he "cheered us all on bleak days". And praising his journalistic skills and integrity, he said that Walter possessed "high intelligence and also political intelligence, or nous, which is rarer", and that he was "the least cynical of men".

Family Walter is survived by his wife, Pamela May, whom he married in 1970, and had a daughter, Natalie, an actress, and a son, Peter.