As a key financial figure in the Liberal Party, Philip Watkins knew as much as any individual member of the detailed internal matters that bedevilled the party through the latter part of Jeremy Thorpe’s leadership, but he could never be prevailed upon to divulge personal or party matters that might reflect badly on those involved.

Even during his last illness when I gently suggested that, for the sake of party history, he ought to record the details of a number of events which I knew he believed to have been incorrectly interpreted, he thought for a moment and replied, “You're probably right... but no.”

Watkins's professional skills as an accountant and his personal stature ensured that he was frequently relied upon to take charge of the party’s financial affairs at times of stress, whether from its extreme poverty or from some suspected maladministration. His personality and acknowledged probity, coupled with an incisive financial mind, were such that his actions in restoring solvency and stability were accepted by party officers, however fraught the situation.

Educated at Bristol Grammar School and Brasenose College, Oxford, Watkins was by profession a chartered accountant, but somehow always managed to arrange his private practice to ensure that he had sufficient time to be active in the causes he believed in.

Six times a Liberal Parliamentary candidate, he contested the Bridgwater constituency in 1959, 1964 and 1966, after which he moved to the nearby seat of North Dorset for the 1970 election, and for the two contests in 1974, in both of which he came second, polling more than 35 per cent of the vote.

He had taken on the key post of Chairman of the party’s Finance and Administration Board in 1969 with responsibility for the running of the party headquarters and its relationships with the constituency associations. Following the October 1974 election, he became Party Treasurer and devoted himself to the national organisation. His other posts included the chairmanship of the Liberal Candidates’ Association and, for 11 years up to the merger with the SDP in 1988, the vice-presidency of the party.

Despite opposing the merger, he joined the new party, believing those who went on to relaunch the Liberal Party to be tactically wrong. He remained active in the Liberal Democrats but did not take on national office. However, before his death he was a member of the General Committee of the National Liberal Club and financial adviser to the Liberal International, arguing with partial success for both to remain broad churches in the Liberal cause.

Curiously, in an age when relatively little consistent local activity appears to quality party activists to be appointed OBE or MBE, Philip Watkins was never offered an honour. Perhaps his identification with the fallout from the Thorpe affair blighted his chances.

Watkins was also Treasurer of the Electoral Reform Society where his gentle humour and shrewd financial acumen were greatly appreciated, particularly in the launching of the society’s international subsidiary, created to assist new and developing democracies.

Philip Watkins was also involved locally in London, being Church Warden of St James the Less, Pimlico, and a governor of Paddington Green School. He possessed a deep personal faith which he wore in a natural and attractive way.

Philip George Watkins, accountant and politician: born 5 November 1930; Chairman, Liberal Party Finance and Administration Board 1969-74, Treasurer, Liberal Party 1977-88; Vice-President, Liberal Party 1977-88; died London 1 June 1995.

Harry Woodhead, who has died at the age of 89, was just about the last of the traditional style of local reporter, with his trademark trilby hat always to the fore and his regular spot at the Town Hall Tavern on The Headrow in the centre of Leeds. Harry was a shrewd investigator of stories and purveyor of facts. His invariable politeness and quiet interrogation often induced local politicians to divulge more than they intended, with the result that Harry's reportage would often have additional material to that in other papers or in the "official" version. This was also the case with victims of crime, including some who had survived Peter Sutcliffe, the "Yorkshire Ripper".

A Leeds man, Harry began his long career in journalism in his teens as a junior reporter on the Yorkshire Evening News, in its day an important local newspaper but which ended in December 1963. Harry had moved to the Bradford-based Telegraph and Argus in 1950 and covered Leeds for the paper for forty-six years!

Harry was always a dedicated and conscientious NUJ man and was elected in 1959 as Leeds branch chair; he served for sixteen years on the NEC, and was national treasurer also for sixteen years. In later years, he was a particularly diligent Leeds branch welfare officer.

Some years ago, possibly on his 80th birthday, Harry held court at the Beulah Hotel, close to his Farnley, Leeds, home, where he had invited friends for a typically convivial evening.

Harry Woodhead born 1927 died 21 March 2017.

With her style and voice Margaret Wingfield looked and sounded like a "Hebe Conservative". This was far from the reality. She was one of those rare natural Liberals who accepted the burden of the Liberal millstone and undertook a wide range of responsibilities and tasks in pursuit of the Liberal cause. Margaret Wingfield had a family background of political involvement, including having an uncle, Charles McCurdy, who was Liberal MP for Northampton and Lloyd George's Coalition Liberal Chief Whip in 1921, but, such were the constraints on women politicians, that she was unable to be a candidate, even at local government level, until 1961 when she contested the London County Council election in Putney.

Thereafter she contested the following three General Elections, 1964 and 1966 in Wokingham and 1970 in Chippenham. All were disappointing, particularly Chippenham which was regarded as a highly winnable seat but where the Liberal vote fell by 10 per cent. Her best result was in the midst of this series when she took on the party's candidature at the Walthamstow West by-election in September 1967. The constituency had earlier been Clement Attlee's seat but the by-election was clearly going to be a highly marginal contest, with the Conservatives eventually gaining the seat from Labour. Despite both main parties' efforts to squeeze the Liberal vote, Margaret Wingfield more than doubled it, to 23%.

Margaret Wingfield campaigned successfully for the National Liberal Club to open its doors to women members and, in 1978, became the first woman member of its General Committee. She was also a Justice of the Peace and served on the Lord Chancellor's Advisory Committee which recommends Magistrates to serve in inner London.

Margaret Wingfield's fifteen minutes of national fame came through being the Liberal Party President during a remarkable period in British political history: the denouement of the Jeremy Thorpe affair and the return of Jo Grimond to the Liberal Leadership. She assumed office at the close of the 1975 Liberal Party Assembly and was therefore in office during the special Assembly in Manchester in June 1976 at which the party resolved to involve the party membership in the election of the party leader. In March 1976 the party had polled badly in a Coventry by-election and party activists across the country were reporting highly embarrassing responses on the doorstep when campaigning. Thorpe, who by this time had largely lost the confidence of the Parliamentary Party, realised that the leadership election rules were about to change and proposed to Margaret Wingfield that he should offer himself for re-election under the new rules, thereby circumventing the Members of Parliament. Neither Wingfield nor Thorpe thought to mention this tactic to the party's Chief Whip, Cyril Smith, who was rightly outraged and eventually decided to resign - a decision reinforced by his serious ill health at the time. Chaos reigned in the party until Richard Wainwright, MP for Colne Valley, in a local radio broadcast on 8 May effectively urged Thorpe to sue the newspapers for libel or to resign. Two days later he resigned.

Jo Grimond was prevailed upon to return as caretaker leader, largely through arm twisting from the two potential leadership candidates, John Pardoe and David Steel, plus a great deal of pressure from those of us such as Gruffydd Evans, Pratap Chitnis and Geoff Tordoff who had opposed Thorpe in 1967. Margaret Wingfield presided over the subsequent leadership election at which David Steel was elected, travelling widely to meet local Liberal associations and to reassure them that she was in control and that they could have confidence in the future.

Margaret Wingfield's experience, including being educated at Freiburg University, led her to be a lifelong internationalist, maintaining her active involvement in Liberal International until shortly before her death. Her time at the London School of Economics, where she obtained a qualification in social sciences, and her subsequent experience as a care committee organiser for the London County Council, including wartime experience providing assistance to families whose homes had been destroyed by bombing, catalysed and focused her political determination. She was awarded the CBE as a recognition of her long service to politics. Always recognised as a practical politician who could be relied upon to turn up at every by-election campaign, Margaret Wingfield retained the affection of party activists up to the end. She was well supported by her husband Guy, whom she married in 1940 and who was invariably at her side whenever it mattered.

Margaret Wingfield, born 19 January 1912, died 6 April 2002. Survived by her husband, Guy Wingfield, two sons, two daughters, and seven grandchildren.

See also The Guardian.

Basil Wigoder, who has died in London at the age of 83, was a distinguished member of a distinguished Jewish family which orginally settled in Dublin before one branch came to Manchester and one to Leeds, where Louis Wigoder was a dentist in Chapel Allerton and Simon Wigoder a General Practitioner in Morley. Basil was the son of Dr Philip and Ruth Wigoder, and nephew of Louis and Simon. He was brought up in the Cheetham district of Manchester from whence he took his title when ennobled in 1974.

Basil Wigoder served in the Royal Artillery from 1942 to 1945 and continued his studies at Oriel College, Oxford, after the war. He obtained his degree in Modern Languages in 1946 and was President of the Oxford Union in the same year. He was also called to the Bar in 1946 and became a Queen's Council in 1966.

A lifelong Liberal, he contested unsuccessfully Bournemouth in 1945 and the Westbury constituency in 1959 and 1964. In the Lords he was for a time the Liberals' Chief Whip and as a consequence served on the Committee of Privileges. After he ceased to be Chief Whip the party omitted to replace him on this committee, from which he eventually retired twenty-six years later, in 2000, commenting that it was always a pleasure to view his name in the list of Members of the House without seeing "dec'd" after it. It was, he added, "a great pity to be leaving the Committee of Privileges just when I was beginning to get the hang of how it worked."

Lord Wigoder of Cheetham in the City of Manchester, born 12 February 1921, died August 2004. Married Yolande Levinson 1948. Three sons and one daughter.

Ray Whitelock, who has died at the age of 86, was one of those rare individuals who was a Liberal by personality and instinct. However difficult the issue, and however ravenous the reactionary response, Ray never flinched, and his disarming and engaging personality often won over the opposition.

After the war Ray settled in business in Wilmslow. There he joined the Liberal party and became a Councillor in 1964.

In 1967 he moved to Leeds to become the Secretary of the Dyers and Finishers Association - an employers' organisation within the wool textile industry. Ray arrived at my Leeds Liberal office before, it seemed, the removal van was fully unpacked at his new home!

He took on the Holbeck ward, just south of the city centre and one of only four wards held by Labour out of thirty. This area was in the process of being demolished and much of the electorate had moved. At a by-election in September 1969 Ray reduced the Labour majority to 260 and to this day those closely involved believe that Labour only held on as a result of electoral malpractice involving the rehoused voters.

Ray contested further city council elections but then concentrated on running the Leeds North East constituency Liberal association.

One of Ray's anecdotes illustrates both his humour and his Liberalism: he was canvassing in Wilmslow where a key issue was overspill from Manchester's poorer areas. Alongside the village green in Wilmslow - The Carrs, I think - were some very large and expensive modern houses. Ray gave the rather posh lady the Liberal spiel and was told, "Oh no, we don't vote Liberal; you see we're against overspill." Ray turned and pointed out the small but very old cottages on the other side of the green, "Madam," he said, "to those people, you're overspill!"

Peggy White, a Leeds Conservative stalwart and long-serving city councillor, has died aged 86 after suffering a stroke. Peggy was deputy lord Mayor of Leeds in 1993 and became lord mayor in 1995. She was made a CBE in 1978 for her work in social services.

Born Jessie Margaret Lyth but always known as "Peggy", she was educated at Harrogate college and went to work in industry in London. She then returned north and in 1963 married Peter White who became a professional Conservative agent in Leeds. Peter had the unusual distinction in 1968 of winning a city council seat on the toss of a coin having tied in votes with his Labour opponent in a ward considered "safe" for Labour. Peter always wore a rather seraphic smile when Peggy embarked on one of her regular robust defences of her political position.

She had been elected the year before Peter and in 1970 became chair of the council's new social services committee. With the then Conservative dominance in local government, she became chair of the national association of municipal councils' social services committee. She was a member of numerous statutory and voluntary bodies in the social services and health sphere. These included the area health authority, the National Children's Bureau, the executive of the RNIB and the National Volunteer Bureau. Her opponents sometimes accused her of being overly harsh in her attitudes to her chosen specialism but none could gainsay her immense energy and dedication, nor her personal kindliness and generosity. She was a firm Conservative party loyalist and held numerous offices in the Leeds party even though, with her forthright views and a difficulty in appreciating opposing opinions, she was often a very uncomfortable colleague. She had to fight off an attempt to deselect her for re-election in her city council ward in 1990 - after 23 years on the council.

She eventually retired in 1998, having also been latterly a member of the West Yorkshire Fire Authority and leader of the Conservative Group on the Police Authority.

In talking with her recently she still had strong views on current issues and on political colleagues but had mellowed enough to admit that others might think differently. She rather liked being known as a tough political animal. She seemed in fine form and all her friends were surprised to hear of her sudden death. Peter died in 1988.

See also The Guardian.

Donald Webster epitomised the good 'Clubman'. He was always good company, with that key quality of being genuinely interested in his colleagues around the lunch table or in the clubroom. He was remarkably well read and had acquired a vast fund of anecdotes, an apposite example of which never needed any encouragement to be produced, but he took as much delight in listening as in telling. I gather that at times the stories could be rather more Rabelaisian than his rather demure appearance would suggest! He acquired friends easily and retained them loyally; he enjoyed organising his own presence in the midst of his 'regulars', even to the extent of arriving very early at the Leeds Luncheon Club each month in order to put cards on half a dozen or more prime places for us all - rather to the annoyance of some other less fortunate members, it has to be said!

Music was at the heart of Donald Webster. His knowledge of the classical repertoire was encyclopaedic and in his special field of English hymnody he was acknowledged as one of the greatest experts. I recall that he entertained us at a Club lunch last year at which he explained and extolled the neglected music of William Lloyd Webber. I went straight out and bought the CD! Typically, one the last tasks he did before his illness caught up with him, was to arrange for the concert pianist Kathryn Stott to speak at a Club lunch. This event, on 13 June, will be dedicated to Donald's memory.

Donald's musical criticism was respected and valued, even though it could make its recipients nervous of opening the Yorkshire Post on a Monday morning. He was invariably forthright and shrewd but his language when pointing out the flaws in an amateur concert differed from his reviews of professional musicians in that, as he once explained to me, the amateurs deserved the benefit of sharp criticism when the performance demanded it but they also needed encouragement.

Donald and I started off poles apart politically, though we converged more and more over the years, and he loved to argue politics without ever falling out with those of a different hue. His memory for events and of what different politicians had said at different times was unusually good and his ability to recall inconsistencies or definitive statements led him to be increasingly exasperated with current affairs.

Donald's presence at a Club function ensured the availability of a ready made vote of thanks to a speaker. He was always happy to 'say a few words', invariably producing an anecdote to fit the occasion. It was typical of Donald that when I wrote in the 'Owl' inviting volunteers to serve on the Club Committee he was the only member to come forward. He will be much missed by all his many friends in the Leeds Club. Our sympathies go to Joan and to Chris.

Dr Donald Webster 1926-2002

Eric Ward, who died on 16 May at the age of 74, typified that cadre of professional party agent that has become almost an endangered species, much to the detriment of British political life. On leaving school at the age of 16, Eric Ward initially worked as a chemist at Courtaulds in Coventry but quickly developed an interest in Conservative politics, so much so that he was a municipal candidate in Coventry at the age of 21. Two years later he took the decision to become a full time agent, initially in Stoke on Trent and, in 1959, in Uxbridge.

Ward had met his wife, Pat Gibbs, in the Young Conservatives in 1950. Her father was for many years the agent for Anthony Eden in the Warwick and Leamington constituency and she herself also trained as a professional agent before her marriage in 1958. Ward moved next to the marginal seat of Rugby where he was agent at three general elections, before being promoted to become Conservative Central Office's Deputy Agent for the East Midlands area.

Four years followed as Deputy-Agent for the North West, based in Manchester, before his final move to Leeds in 1979 as Central Office Agent for Yorkshire and Humberside. Although he retired in 1994 he continued as Secretary of the Yorkshire Area Conservative Association until 1997.

Eric Ward was regarded as a by-election specialist and was often drafted in to a difficult constituency regardless of location. One of his most painful experiences was at Lincoln in February 1973 where Dick Taverne had resigned his seat to fight a by-election to challenge the leftward trend in the Labour party. The Conservative candidate was the right winger, Jonathan Guinness, and Ward had to rebut allegations that his somewhat idiosyncratic candidate had been deliberately chosen in order to assist Taverne's chances.

Later, in March 1976, Ward was in charge of the Conservative campaign at the Wirral by-election for David (now Lord) Hunt, achieving a 14% swing to the Conservatives. Harold Wilson resigned as Prime Minister five days later.

Ward played a part in directing volunteers and media representatives to the Brighton hospital following the IRA bomb attack on the Grand Hotel at the 1984 Conservative conference. Mrs Thatcher, seeing Ward with a plaster cast on his lower arm, enquired solicitously as to the extent of his injury. As it happened he had sustained a broken thumb the previous evening, having stumbled during a night out with Denis Thatcher. Ward managed to avoid admitting the cause of his injury to the Prime Minister.

Ward anchored the Conservative party's presence in Yorkshire for fifteen years, taking pride in his thorough professionalism which was respected by friend and foe alike. His conviviality and popularity ensured that leading party figures were always prepared to come to Yorkshire, not least to mix informally with electors in a local pub or restaurant.

Eric Ward was awarded the CBE in 1989. He and his wife remained in Yorkshire after his retirement, though Pat died in January 2005. He leaves two sons, Nick, who is a Sergeant in the Royal Artillery and who has served three recent tours in Iraq, and Tim, who is with a Leeds based insurance underwriting business.

John G Walker, who has died at the age of 97, was the last of the postwar Liberal stalwarts who maintained the party through its most difficult days.

His father died in 1918 in the closing stages of the First World War and John was de facto adopted by his father's elder brother, Ronald Walker, who enabled him to go to Uppingham School and then to Queen's College, Cambridge, from where he emerged with an MA in economics. Having studied under him at Cambridge, John Maynard Keynes was sufficiently impressed by John to offer him a research post. Instead he followed his uncle into the family's blanket making firm, James Walker and Sons which still exists at Holme Bank Mills, Mirfield. Much later on John was to remark ruefully that the family firm regularly needed a war somewhere to boost profits.

Ronald Walker, long time owner of the Dewsbury Reporter and knighted in 1953, was a lifelong Liberal and John followed the same political path. At Cambridge he became President of the University's Liberal Society and he contested four general elections: 1950 in Keighley and 1951, 1955 and 1959 in the Sowerby division, much of which is today's Calder Valley constituency.

He held many Liberal party positions and was regarded as a source of consistency and strength amidst often wavering colleagues. Dogged rather than charismatic he was nonetheless a great raconteur and often entertained colleagues with stories of the perils of chairing public meetings for Liberal candidates who were sometimes far from being predictable. For many years he was responsible for interviewing potential Liberal candidates - whose occasional vicissitudes also provided him with a ready source of anecdotes.

Curiously he never held national office in the Liberal party, although his name was canvassed behind the scenes for party President in 1975. He was the mainstay of the Yorkshire Liberal Federation for many years and was President of the Dewsbury and of the Batley and Morley constituency party associations.

His academic background, and his experience in the wool trade, led him to concentrate on economic questions and he was often frustrated by what he saw as the party's culpable lack of awareness of economic principles. His other great political cause was that of electoral reform.

He was a magistrate from 1957 on the Batley and Dewsbury bench and served for many years as the Liberal representative for the West Riding on the Lord Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Justices of the Peace.

He served in the Second World War with great distinction. He began his war service in the army but soon transferred to Coastal Command where he became Pilot Officer and later Squadron Leader. He was decorated with the Distinguished Flying Cross for anti-submarine service in the North Atlantic.

He suffered tragedy in his personal life with the suicide of a son on a local motorway and it was typical of John that he took the trouble at the inquest to thank the man who at some risk had shielded his son's body from traffic.

He leaves a widow, Frances Margaret (Peggy) and a son, Richard.

John Goldthorp Walker, born 27 June 1912, died 15 August 2009