STAFF IN CONFIDENCE INDIV
MR WALTER WILKINSON WALLACE CVO CBE DSC
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Mr Wallace was born on 23 September 1923 and educated at the George Heriot School, Edinburgh. He joined the Royal Marines in 1942 and was awarded the DSC for gallantry at Walcheren in 1944. He reached the rank of temporary Captain before demobilisation in 1946.
In 1948 he joined the Colonial Service and was sent to Sierra Leone, serving as an Assistant District Commissioner and subse- quently as Assistant Colonial Secretary and Clerk to the Executive Council. From 1955-57 he was seconded to the Colonial Office and shortly after his return to Sierra Leone became acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Works, Housing and Communications. From 1961-62 he was a Provincial Commissioner and from then until his retirement from HMOCS in 1964 was Development Secretary. From 1964-67 he served on contract terms in the Bahamas as Establish- ment Secretary and from 1967-73 was Secretary to the Executive Council of Bermuda. He then acted as HM Commissioner, Anguilla, for three months from July to October 1973. He was appointed Governor of the British Virgin Islands in July 1974, remaining there until November 1978.
Mr Wallace was awarded the CBE in the Birthday Honours 1973 and the CVO on the occasion of The Royal Visit to BVI in the Autumn of 1977.
He is married with one son and one daughter, both adult.
Mr Wallace is an excellent all-round officer, level headed and with a wide experience of Dependent Territories' problems and procedures. He is confident but modest and possesses charm of manner. He is no innovator and is accordingly not the sort of man who will rock the boat. He is canny and self-effacing, preferring to leave his Ministers to make their own mistakes if he cannot talk then out of courses of which he disapproves. He will not therefore play an active part in winning acceptance of new policies, however desirable they may appear. Nevertheless, his term of office as Governor, BVI, was successful. He kept the BVI Government solidly and safely on course but at the fairly leisurely pace which suited the people of the region at that time.
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