By Rory Miller, Benny Pollack and Lewis Taylor:
“Our former colleague in the Institute of Latin American Studies, Walter Little, died at the age of 69 on the 1 April 2015, a few months after falling ill.
Walter came to the University as Lecturer in Latin American Politics in 1973, having studied at Nottingham and The Johns Hopkins University before completing a PhD on Peronist Argentina at Cambridge and working as a Research Fellow at Glasgow.
His early published work on the Peronist movement still carries weight today.
Walter became nationally known in 1982 for his numerous TV appearances at the time of the Falklands/Malvinas War when, as one of the few specialists on Argentine politics in the UK, he was in great demand for interviews.
Following the war he worked as special advisor to the influential House of Commons Select Committee on Foreign Affairs, and subsequently he was instrumental, with MPs from all parties, in establishing the South Atlantic Council to seek a peaceful negotiated solution to the ongoing conflict.
His later research concentrated on the military and democracy in Latin America and on political corruption in the region.
Walter was an inspiring teacher for generations of students in the Politics department and the Institute of Latin American Studies, as well as supervising a succession of excellent PhD theses.
Outside the University, he was one of the leading figures in the regeneration of Lark Lane in the 1970s and 1980s.
He will be sadly missed by his former colleagues, students and friends, and our sympathies go to his family – Noël, Madeleine and Helen – who have opened an appeal for the Clatterbridge Cancer Trust in his memory www.justgiving.com/Walter-Little .”
I am so very proud of my dad. Thank you Rory, Benny and Lewis. And thank you to everybody who knew him, learned from him, respected him and found him great fun, like I did. Helen x
Dear Helen, if I may.
I was only thinking of your Dad last night and was very sad to see that you lost him only recently. I studied at Liverpool from 1975-78 and he was my tutor. He was very kind to me – the Politics department wasn’t generally a very friendly place for a wet behind the ears Young Conservative, straight from school – and I was very grateful. I remember seeing him on television at the time of the Falklands, and see on here that he went on to be a Special Adviser to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee; I wish I’d known at the time because I worked in the House of Commons and Downing Street from 1979 to 2007 and it would have been good to meet up with him.
My condolences to you and your family.
Gina Hearn (nee Chapman)
Prague, Czech Republic