Walter Thomas Layton, 1st Baron LaytonCHCBE (15 March 1884 – 14 February 1966), was a British economist, editor, newspaper proprietor and
Liberal Party politician.
He became a lecturer in economics at
Trinity College, Cambridge in 1908, then from 1909 to 1914 he was a Fellow of
Gonville and Caius College. A notable economist, Layton worked for the
Ministry of Munitions during the
First World War, then at the fledgling
Economic and Financial Organization of the League of Nations. In 1922 he was appointed editor of The Economist, a post he held until 1938, and from 1944 to 1963 was also Chairman of The Economist Newspaper Ltd. His editorship was of profound importance to the newspaper, and he was probably the person to whom it owes most thanks for its survival and continued independence. He was editorial director of the News Chronicle (1930–40), and returned to the Chronicle after the war, where he remained until the newspaper ceased publication in 1960.[1]
Layton stood unsuccessfully for parliament three times as a Liberal. He fought
Burnley in
1922,
Cardiff South in
1923 and in
1929 he switched again to fight the
London University seat. However, Layton's importance in Liberal politics had much more to do with his work at the News Chronicle and The Economist where he became a prominent member of a group of Liberals who had a major influence on public opinion. Their orbits were the
Whitehall and
Westminster villages. They moved in
Fleet Street, the
City, and
Oxbridge circles. Among their contemporaries were
Maynard Keynes,
William Beveridge,
Gilbert Murray, and
Seebohm Rowntree. Layton would later chair the executive committee of the Liberal Industrial Inquiry which produced the celebrated Yellow Book of 1928.
Marriage and children
Lord Layton married
Eleanor Dorothea Osmaston, daughter of Eleanor Margaret and Francis Beresford Plumptre Osmaston, in 1910.[5] They had seven children:
The Hon. Margaret Dorothea Layton
MA (13 March 1911 – 5 July 1962), married Alfred Geiringer (1911-1996) of
Reuters, four children
The Hon. Jean Mary Layton (14 April 1916 – 8 July 2017),[8] violinist and music therapist,[8] 100th birthday marked by Classic FM in 2016,[9] married Paul Eisler (d.1966), two children
The Hon. Olive Shirley Layton (18 December 1918 – 22 June 2009),[10] actress, married
Peter Gellhorn, composer and conductor (1912-2004), four children
The Hon. (Elizabeth) Ruth Frances Layton (27 April 1923 – 4 June 2016),[11] served in
ATS, married
Edward Gutierrez Pegna (1919-2009), four children
The Hon. Christopher Walter Layton (born 31 December 1929), married (1) Anneliese Margaret von Thadden, two children; married (2) Margaret Ann Moon, three children; married (3) Wendy Elizabeth Christine Bartlett, one child
Layton died in February 1966, aged 81, and was succeeded in the barony by his
eldest son.
References
^Dennis Griffiths (ed.) The Encyclopedia of the British Press 1422–1992, London and Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1992, p.364