7651

John Walter V 1924

Seated half-length, full face and looking to the right, and leaning on his left elbow, wearing morning dress with wing collar and a dark cravat with a pearl tie pin and a gold watch chain, a gold signet ring on his left hand which is raised to his chin

Oil on canvas, 102.5 x 82 cm (40 ¼ x 32 ½ in.)

Inscribed lower right: de László / 1924. VI

Laib L11555 (799) / C27(14): Mr. Ward [sic]

Sitters’ Book II, opp. f. 40: John Walter May 15 1924

The Times Newspapers Ltd. / News International plc.

John Walter sat for de László in May 1924 and a photograph in the artist’s archive shows him posing outside the studio with Queen Marie of Romania [3200], who was also being painted at that time. The artist also painted two portraits of Mrs John Walter in Spanish costume [6953] [112192] in May 1924. A copy of the present portrait [111427] by an unknown hand was made in 1924 or 1925.

John Walter V was born 8 August 1873, the son of Arthur Fraser Walter. He was the great-great grandson of John Walter (1738/9-1812), who founded The Times in 1785. Walter was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, before embarking on his career with The Times in 1898. His fluency in French, German, and Spanish and amiable nature made him a valuable correspondent and he was regularly sent on special assignments.

The sitter worked as a foreign correspondent for the Iberian peninsula in the first decade of the 20th century and was based in Madrid, developing a love for the country which he shared with his wife, Phyllis Foster, whom he married in 1903. There were four children of the marriage: Pamela (born 1907), John (born 1908), Roderick (born 1911), and Ines (born 1914). During the First World War Walter worked at the British Embassy in Madrid, as Press Attaché with responsibility for Allied Propaganda.

Walter succeeded to the chairmanship of The Times Publishing Company Ltd on his Father’s death 22 February 1910, a post he retained until 1928. It was a difficult time for the company. Its 18th century business structure had been modernized into a limited family company in 1906 before the Court of Chancery forced its sale in 1908. It was purchased by Lord Northcliffe [4764] and he and Walter worked closely for twelve years until the press baron’s death in 1922. Northcliffe impressed on Walter the importance of restoring the fortunes of the paper: “After all, it is your business. Your people made it and you have a son to inherit it. I am only here to put it on its legs again.”^[1]

Walter was able to buy Northcliffe’s shares in the company after his death in 1922, in partnership with Lord Astor of Hever [2608]. They remained co-chief proprietors until the paper merged with The Sunday Times in 1967. The Walter family’s long association with the paper thus came to an end.

After the death of his first wife in 1937 he married Rosemary Crawford in 1939. John Walter suffered a serious car accident in 1960, compounded by pneumonia, but recovered. He rarely travelled to London after that time, preferring to remain in his modest seaside flat at Hove, Sussex. He was received into the Roman Catholic Church in 1961 and died in Hove on 11 August 1968.

PROVENANCE:

The Times Newspapers Ltd. / News International plc.

LITERATURE:

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, 1938, p. 353

•Grigg, John, The History of the Times, 1993, p. 736

KF 2013