WALSH, Arthur (1827-1920), of 35 Hill Street, Berkeley Square, London, Middlesex; and Warfield Park, Berks.

‘A moderate Conservative’, Walsh’s parliamentary activity was generally confined to the division lobbies during his first term in the Commons.1Dod’s parliamentary companion (1865), 302. His father, Sir John Walsh, 2nd baronet, had inherited an East Indian fortune and estates in Ireland and Berkshire. He built up large landholdings in Radnorshire, which he represented as a Conservative from 1840 until his ennoblement as Baron Ormathwaite in 1868, having earlier represented Sudbury.2HP Commons, 1820-1832, vii. 627-31.

Walsh topped the poll for Leominster at the 1865 general election. In his first session he generally voted with his father on key political issues. Although he favoured relieving Dissenters from payment of church rates, he divided against the abolition bills introduced by Sir John Trelawny. His maiden, and only recorded speech in the 1865-8 parliament, was in defence of his constituency, which the Liberal government’s reform bill proposed reducing to single member status, 14 May 1866. Restating the traditional case that small boroughs offered entry to men of talent and ministers, such as Sir Robert Peel, Sir James Graham and Lord Palmerston, who would not have been able to retain the representation of large urban constituencies, he also noted that the redistribution disproportionately affected 79 MPs, of which 48 were Conservatives. The government proposed partial disenfranchisement of boroughs with populations under 8,000, he declared, but had 10,000 been chosen the Liberals would have suffered equally. Walsh duly divided against the bill at its second reading, 27 Apr. 1866, and was in the majority that supported Dunkellin’s amendment for a rateable franchise, 18 June 1866, which prompted the resignation of Russell’s government.

In the divisions on the 1867 representation of the people bill introduced by Disraeli, Walsh voted against amendments to enfranchise lodgers, compounders and women, and to expand the copyhold franchise. He also cast votes against disenfranchising the small boroughs and increasing the representation of the largest towns. Shortly after dividing in the minority that opposed Gladstone’s Irish church resolutions, 3 Apr. 1868, Walsh took the Chiltern Hundreds, 14 Apr. 1868, in order to transfer to Radnorshire, the vacancy caused by his father’s elevation to the peerage.3The Times, 20, 29 Apr. 1868. He was returned unopposed and represented the county until succeeding his father as 2nd Baron Ormathwaite in 1881.

The bulk of Ormathwaite’s estates (12,428 acres) lay in Radnorshire, but he also owned almost 9,000 acres in county Kerry and 2,200 in county Cork.4J. Bateman, The great landowners of Great Britain and Ireland, ed. D. Spring (1971), 346. These estates yielded an annual rental of £14,667 in the 1870s, but thereafter Ormathwaite got into financial difficulties.5Ibid. In 1895 a meeting of creditors revealed that he had unsecured debts of £16,473, and secured debts of £176,838, and that by 1893, his annual income had fallen to £2,000. Thereafter he and his household had been supported by his wife, the sister of the 8th duke of Beaufort.6The Times, 3 Sept. 1895. His financial embarrassment led to his resignation as lord lieutenant of Radnorshire, a position which he had held for twenty years.7The Times, 14 Sept. 1895. He attributed his problems to the depression in the value of estates, the land legislation which had reduced Irish rents, and the decline of the royalties from the mines on his Welsh estates.8The Times, 9 Nov. 1895.

Effectively bankrupt, Ormathwaite lived until 1920, by which time he was the third oldest peer in the House of Lords, but he was never an active member.9Aberdeen Journal, 31 Mar. 1920. He was succeeded by his eldest son Arthur Henry John Walsh (1859-1937), 3rd Baron, who had been Conservative MP for Radnorshire, 1885-92. He left a personal estate sworn at £75,880.10National Probate Calendar: 6 May 1920. The title then passed successively to his brothers, Harry William (1863-1943), 4th Baron, and Reginald (1868-1944), 5th Baron.11Burke’s peerage (1949), 1538. Ormathwaite’s papers, including his diaries, are held by the National Library of Wales.12Ref. fH; NRA 3331 Walsh.