Walter Bromley-Davenport

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Walter Henry Bromley-Davenport TD DL (15 September 1903 – 26 December 1989) was a British Conservative Party politician. He was educated at Malvern College.

His mother, Lilian Bromley-Davenport, was heavily involved in local public life; she was an alderman and magistrate for Cheshire, president of Macclesfield Conservative Association, chairman of Cheshire County Education Committee, and a governor of several schools; she was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1954.

Military He joined the Grenadier Guards in 1922. a fact usually mentioned on his election literature during his subsequent political career. At the outbreak of World War II he raised the 5th Battalion of the Cheshire Regiment; he led the battalion during all of World War II.

Political career He was Conservative Member of Parliament for Knutsford from 1945 until 1970, and was a Conservative junior Whip from 1948 to 1951. He lost his junior Whip position after kicking the Belgian ambassador down a flight of steps. He reportedly mistook the ambassador for a colleague who he thought had left the Commons before the 10 o'clock vote. His resignation resulted in the young future Prime Minister Edward Heath taking his place, beginning his ministerial career. He was a member of the British Boxing Board of Control from 1953. He was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of Cheshire in 1949 and knighted in 1961.

Bromley-Davenport had an extraordinarily loud voice. He would startle new Labour MPs when they rose to make a speech by screaming "Take your hands out of your pockets!" On one occasion in 1956 he shouted 'Sit down!' at Otho Prior-Palmer, MP for Worthing, which the minister immediately did, as he attempted to speak at the same time as Davenport. When he entered an overcrowded train in Crewe, he walked up and down the corridor shouting "All change!". When everyone left he took a seat. He was also attacked by a man with an axe in his home. Davenport screamed "Don't let the NHS get me!" and the assailant fled.

Family Sir Walter Henry Bromley-Davenport married Lenette Jeanes in 1933, they had a son and a daughter.

Walter Henry Bromley-Davenport died at Capesthorne Hall on 26 December 1989, aged 86. His wife Lenette died a few days before him.