Walker became a Methodist missionary in southern Africa. He left the mission service and later settled in Bulawayo, Rhodesia.
Political career in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe
In the Rhodesia general election of 1974, he gained the seat of Bulawayo North as a Rhodesian Front candidate, polling 93·4% of the vote among the electorate. He was re-elected in the 1977 and 1979 elections. Walker served as Minister for Education from 1977 in Ian Smith's government and also held office under Abel Muzorewa in 1979–80. 'El Salvador' Dinner, London, 25 September 1989. L to R: Denis Walker, Lord Sudeley, El Salvador's Foreign Minister, Andrew Smith, Dr Harvey Ward Following the end of white minority rule and the creation of Zimbabwe, he was appointed Deputy Chairman of Parliamentary Committees, but came under pressure from the new government of Robert Mugabe. He was to have been arrested on 10 December 1981 together with the MP for Bulawayo South, but had fortuitously left on a prearranged holiday. When he returned in January 1982, he briefly re-attended Parliament before learning that the Mugabe government had stationed police around the building to arrest him on sight. Walker fled the country and returned to Britain.
Return to Britain
On 10 February 1982 he delivered a letter to Margaret Thatcher at 10 Downing Street highlighting the political situation in Zimbabwe. Walker entered into a number of small business concerns, such as Fax Network International Limited, based in Chingford.
Monday Club
On 29 September 1986 Denis Walker was the guest-of-honour at a Conservative Monday ClubForeign Affairs Committee Dinner at Bailey's Hotel, Gloucester Road, South Kensington, chaired by Richard Stallabrass, who had previously served in Rhodesia. He subsequently joined the Club and in 1990 joined the Executive Council. On 1 November 1989 Denis Walker produced a paper for the Club's Foreign Affairs Committee, chaired by Gregory Lauder-Frost, on Land Reform in Zimbabwe. In his last paragraph, he stated:
Other activities
A robust anti-communist, Denis Walker was a guest on 25 September 1989 at the Western Goals Institute Dinner at Simpsons-in-the-Strand, London, in honour of the President of El Salvador, Alfredo Cristiani, and his inner cabinet. Others present included Sir Alfred Sherman, Monday Club vice-president Professor Antony Flew, Dr Zigmunt Szkopiak, the Monday Club's Colonel Barry Turner RE, Sam Swerling, Andrew VR Smith, Stuart Notholt and Gideon Sherman, Gregory Lauder-Frost and Harvey Ward of the Monday Club's Foreign Affairs Committee and both vice-presidents of Western Goals. Walker is the Director of the South Africa-oriented Good Hope Christian Group, and the Rhodesia Christian Group, organisations which were set up to assist refugees from those countries. He is also General Secretary of The Zimbabwe-Rhodesia Relief Fund, a registered charity, of which the chairman is Sir Nicholas Winterton. Denis Walker was appointed in mid-1989 as the Chairman of the Schools Liaison Steering Committee for the British Institute of Management, City of London Branch. His portrait photograph appears on the front page of their Autumn 1989 Newsletter with another in the August/September 2005 Rhodesia Christian Group Newsletter. Walker was introduced as an Ordinary Member onto the Grand Council of the International Monarchist League on 14 March 1990 by Gregory Lauder-Frost, and is now the director of that organisation. He administers the International Monarchist League, the Monday Club, and other business activities from an office at Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, and now lives at Woodford Green, London. Walker is married and has one son.
