George Walden
British diplomat, politician, journalist (born 1939)
George Gordon Harvey Walden (born 15 September 1939) is an English journalist, former diplomat and former politician for the Conservative Party, who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Buckingham from 1983 to 1997 and Minister for Higher Education under Margaret Thatcher.
Early life and education
Walden was educated at Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith, London, at Jesus College, Cambridge, where he read medieval and modern languages, and for post-graduate studies at Moscow University. While at Cambridge, Walden played drums in the University's jazz band, performing alongside Dave Gelly and Art Themen.
During his time in the diplomatic service, Walden studied Chinese at the University of Hong Kong (1965–67), spent a year at the École nationale d'administration (ÉNA, then located in Paris), from 1973 to 1974, and a sabbatical year at Harvard (1981–82).
Diplomat
Walden joined the Foreign Office in 1962 and worked there as a researcher until 1965, when he went to Hong Kong to study Chinese. After that, he was posted as Second Secretary in the office of the British Chargé d'Affaires in Peking, from 1967 to 1970 (there was no ambassador at that time). As First Secretary, he was at the Soviet Desk in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) from 1970 to 1973 (during which time he was formally appointed an Officer in the Diplomatic Service) and, after his year at ÉNA, at the British Embassy in Paris (1974–78). He was then appointed Principal Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, serving David Owen and Lord Carrington, for which he was decorated CMG in the New Year Honours of 1981. After his sabbatical at Harvard, he was head of the planning staff at the FCO (1982–83), and then left the Diplomatic Service to stand for Parliament.
Politician
Walden was elected as the MP for Buckingham at the 1983 general election.
“George Walden” enters the record as british diplomat, politician, journalist (born 1939). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what George, Walden and British can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1508489. VIAF identifies the subject as 75383437. The Library of Congress control number is n87907224. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1939, 1983, 1997 and 1965.
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This entry incorporates text from “George Walden” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.