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

Richard Wainwright's role was pivotal in the post-war revival of the Liberal Party. His particular skill and emphasis was on taking the broad brush and sometimes, particularly in the case of Jo Grimond, leader from 1956 to 67, high flown generalities about the party and its organisation and translating them into the detail of workable structures that the somewhat anarchic party activists would accept and operate. A key aspect of such practicality was his role in the five person Organising Committee, chaired by Frank Byers, which in the early 1960s largely sidetracked the cumbersome party committee structure with its all embracing remit to do whatever was necessary "to strengthen the impact of Liberalism upon the electorate." Similarly, following the 1974 general elections, when the party urgently needed to transform its financial affairs it was to Richard Wainwright that it turned and his subsequent report was significant in the subsequent growth of special sections of the party with their own direct funds. In this approach he was influenced by the example of the successful local government department at party headquarters which he had inaugurated - and funded personally - in 1960.

Wainwright had a shrewd instinct for reading the mood of the party and almost invariably topped the poll for any party office voted for by members at large. He enjoyed his popularity with the party's grassroots and fostered it by taking on a heavy load of speaking and campaigning engagements across the country. The small group of party officers and executives, including Gruffydd Evans, Pratap Chitnis, Tim Beaumont and Michael Meadowcroft, who wanted to prevent Jeremy Thorpe following Grimond as party leader in 1967 attempted a "draft Wainwright" initiative but, without any support from Wainwright himself, and having only been in Parliament one year, it had no chance of success. Given his relationship with the party it was significant that he risked it by finally causing Jeremy Thorpe's resignation from the Liberal leadership by calling publicly on him to sue Norman Scott over the allegations which eventually figured in Thorpe's trial. At the time so little could be said openly by party officers about Jeremy Thorpe's autocratic leadership style and of the potential danger to the party of his personal affairs that delegates to the following Liberal Party Assembly in Southport, unaware of the true situation, gave Wainwright the only rough ride of his career.

Richard Wainwright's political views and motivation were a consequence of being deeply affected by the social conditions of Britain in the 1930s. His long association with the Methodist Church, particularly on difficult housing estates in East Leeds, pointed him more towards liberalism than socialism and he joined the Liberal Party whilst an undergraduate at Cambridge University. He was a conscientious objector during the war and served with the Friends Ambulance Unit. He remained in Europe for the first phase of postwar reconstruction and thus missed being involved in the 1945 election.

Richard Wainwright followed his father into the Leeds accountancy firm of Beevers and Adgie, becoming a partner in 1950. He was very much a Leeds person, as was his wife, Joyce, who has been a formidable campaigner in her own right. He held directorships in a number of Leeds-based companies, including Charles F Thackray (surgical instruments) and Jowett and Sowry (office equipment), He contested the Pudsey constituency in the general election of 1950 and again in 1955, but for the 1959 contest moved to the Colne Valley seat which spanned the West Riding between Huddersfield and the outskirts of Oldham. He assiduously cultivated the towns and villages of this widespread constituency and was elected at the 1966 election, losing in 1970 but then winning the following four general elections there before his retirement in 1987. He and Joyce were devastated when their son, Andrew, committed suicide in the middle of the February 1974 election campaign. Later they set up a non-charitable trust in Andrew's name which has quietly supported a number of projects designed to extend democracy in Britain and abroad. After his retirement Richard chided those who hinted that he might go to the House of Lords for even suggesting that he "would go to the crematorium".

His policy specialism remained employment, trade and public finance throughout his political career. He was a member of the Commons Treasury Select Committee from its inception in 1979 until his retirement from parliament and was the party's spokesman, first on trade and industry, working with Eric Varley during the Lib-Lab Pact of 1977-78, and, later, employment. Curiously, despite being much involved in policy formation, Richard Wainwright only produced one publication in his own name, the booklet "Own as you earn" in 1958, preferring to foster and prompt others to write, through for instance the Unservile State Group of which he was a founding member in 1953.

His aptitude for understanding the practicalities of how to put together projects and campaigns was also seen through his membership of the Joseph Rowntree Social Service Trust (now the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust) from 1959-84. During my time on the staff of the Trust I recall fellow trustee Jo Grimond making typically devastating critiques of applications for funding. Following a Jo performance there would usually be a short silence before Richard would gently ask "so what do we do with this idea?" Bit by bit, with Richard's prompting, a workable project would then often emerge.

Richard Wainwright did a great deal to encourage and foster the career of promising young Liberals. His solidity and dependability over more than fifty years played a more significant role in the survival and revival of the Liberal cause than might be realised by an outsider. Certainly in committing himself to the task of underpinning organisationally and in policy formation the more public leadership of Jo Grimond, Mark Bonham Carter and Frank Byers, not to mention his vital role as a party focal point during the turbulent Thorpe years, he gave stability to a party that was not overly enamoured of that virtue.

He is survived by his wife Joyce, his son Martin and daughters Tessa and Hilary. Martin is northern editor of The Guardian; Hilary edits the radical magazine, Red Pepper.

Richard Scurrah Wainwright, politician and businessman, born April 11 1918; died January 16 2003.

See also The Guardian.

A remarkable individual and a doughty Liberal campaigner

Joyce Wainwright's funeral was typical of her and of the family. Her - disposable - coffin already in the eventually overfull Gipton Methodist Church, and Hilary, Martin and Tessa Wainwright at the door to greet everyone as they arrived. The service was emotional but never mournful and was replete with anecdotes from children and grandchildren which everyone recognised as making up the picture of the Joyce they knew and loved.

Joyce was always her own person. She played the role of Richard's partner and supporter with perfection, particularly when he was in parliament, but she clearly felt that, besides enabling Richard to achieve far more, this was itself a key way of promoting the Liberal cause. It certainly did not prevent her from campaigning herself, not only in the Colne Valley but also for women's causes, not least some of those acquired from Hilary's activities. She was delighted to be the President of Leeds North West Liberal Democrats when Greg Mulholland gained the seat.

She was involved in a myriad of local and international causes, ranging from consistent support for the Gipton Methodist Church and a number of charities for which she and Richard often opened their superb garden, with its renowned delphiniums, as a means of enticing many more donors and supporters.

One of my worst days in politics came when their son Andrew died in the middle of the February 1974 General Election campaign. It was typical of the stoical determination and deep personal resources of both Joyce and Richard that they were determined to carry on campaigning. It took all of Albert Ingham's and my efforts - plus, it should be said, the others parties' willingness to reschedule debates - to persuade them to take a short break to deal with immediate family matters.

Joyce was always genuinely interested in the families of her many political friends and had an encyclopaedic memory of their children's and grandchildren's names and activities. A meeting with Joyce always involved updating her mental file on one's family. The pleasures of visiting The Heath and, latterly, the bungalow, are now ended but the warm memories will last for a long time.

The received truth is that one does not make close friends when one is older. That was certainly not true with Harry who became a really close and valued friend almost from the moment we first met at the Leeds Club over twenty years ago.

We shared many interests:

- the importance of politics. Although we came at the issues from two very different traditions, we agreed on most things. He was certainly my favourite socialist and we sympathised mutually over the electorate's regular lack of vision! For much of his working life Harry was a trade union representative but he gave short shrift to any member who wanted Harry to argue an indefensible case.

- a love of the Leeds Club, in which our shared bolshieness ensured a united front when drastic action had to be taken to oppose an officer who had outstayed his usefulness - including having to extract the deeds of the building from under the man's bed!

- alongside being very naturally at home in the Club - and it was always a good day when one could join Harry over lunch, such was his conviviality - there was Harry's love of and knowledge of wine, particularly French wine. He was my favourite wine lover and for a decade or more, right up to his death, he was the convenor of the "Alternative" Wine Group which originally met on alternate Fridays (the other Fridays were training days!) When it ceased to be possible to use the Club the two groups amalgamated and Harry ran both - the only rule, he said, was that there were no rules! He could be quite irascible with any colleague who, he believed, was not taking the task in hand seriously enough and was just guessing.

- an affection for the village and the wines of Faugères, the centre of the eponymous appellation, in the depths of France. He became a member of the co-operative that owned a little house there and was a regular visitor until his health made it too difficult. We would go on visits to wine producers and, after buying several cases early on in the tour, Harry would say, "that's it, I've bought enough for this visit. I'm not buying any more." However, almost invariably, at the next place and tasting, he would enthuse about the wines and immediately buy more cases! He came round to our house in Bramley each Monday evening, ostensibly to taste wines - mainly from Faugères - but there were few bottles that were not empty at the end of the evening! The origin of the Monday evening "soirée" was that my wife, Liz, was usually out rehearsing and the late Geoff Percival, another Faugères co-op member and a brilliant IT man, started coming round ostensibly to update the computer but really to enjoy good wines. Harry heard of these convivial sessions and invited himself to join us! He then rather took over and invited a third friend to come round! More than anything I miss those evenings together and Mondays are very solitary.

- a love of books and, in particular, the Leeds Library in which Harry was a very regular member and user until his breathlessness inhibited his mobility, whereupon I was very happy to feed his voracious literary appetite from my library, particularly with political biographies; he was, incidentally, my favourite pedant! Typically his only letters to The Times were to point out poor grammar or the misuse of a word.

- a love of music of which Simon Lindley has already spoken, mentioning his membership of numerous choirs and his long service as a steward at Town Hall concerts.

- a fondness for the railways on which he spent almost all his working life. He was not a railway "anorak" but he lamented the destruction of the network. He was delighted at the reopening of old pieces of line. One of these was a mere hundred or so metres of a line north of Huddersfield. This bit of track, known as "the Bradley curve", enabled through running in and out of Leeds on lines that had been blocked for decades. Harry suggested that he would like to travel over the newly available routes and I was happy to accompany him. I planned the route, starting from Bramley - where we could park - at 6.15 am, via Bradford to pick up the Grand Central railway, round to Doncaster via Halifax and the delightfully named Pontefract Monk Hill, then back to Wakefield Westgate and taking the local train via Wakefield Kirkgate to Deighton and back via Brighouse to Leeds. We eventually arrived back at Bramley at 11.15 - five hours to make use of a hundred metres or so of new track!

Harry was a great raconteur with a fund of good stories. One favourite, that many of you have no doubt heard at least once, concerned his colleague, Charlie Cook, who was on duty with Harry at Keighley booking office. To have a stock of printed and numbered tickets to a particular destination required there to be at least twelve tickets booked to it in a year. Otherwise the clerk had to write out a blank ticket for each passenger, including the route, and then to enter the details into a special ledger. Consequently Charlie's face fell when lady arrived at his window and asked for two adult and two children's returns to Broadstairs., for which, of course, there were no printed tickets available. Charlie then engaged the lady in conversation: "Why do you want to go to Broadstairs - it's a very boring place, particularly for children?" "Oh, is it?" responded the lady. "Yes," Charlie continued, "why don't you go to Blackpool, it's much livelier for a family holiday." "You think so?" said the lady, "all right, book me the tickets to Blackpool." At this point Harry would pause, for the better effect of Charlie's punch line, "Ah, if you want Blackpool, you need to go to my colleague's window, round the other side." Assuming there had been a family discussion on its holiday destination, I only hope that the husband was happy at the induced change of plan.

How should we remember Harry? Above all to realise that he relied greatly on Christine to whom he was deeply attached. He was convivial and always a pleasure to be with; he was generous and a quiet contributor to many projects and individuals; he was loyal and once he was committed to a cause or to an individual he stayed on board; and he was man of integrity. One friend to whom I communicated the news of Harry's death, said, "He was a real gent." I agree.

Harry Whitham, 1932-2015.