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 in the British Colonial Service, and was mostly based in Nigeria in West Africa. 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, where he studied Political science. Life and career In 1971, Walter joined the BBC as a radio producer, first for the BBC World Service followed by BBC Radio London and BBC Radio 4, where he produced political programmes. He then joined BBC Television, first on Newsnight as a political producer for the late Professor Robert Mckenzie. He also worked on the Nationwide and Newsweek programmes.