Criminologist.

Born: August 6, 1917; Died: September 13, 2014.

PROFESSOR Nigel Walker, who has died aged 97, was a distinguished academic criminologist who was born in China and educated in Edinburgh, and after university his first occupation was with the Scottish Office.

He made his name in the 1960s with influential books including Crime and Punishment in Britain and Insanity in England. The former explored the links between mental health and crime and one reviewer described it as a monumental text.

Professor Walker's many books helped to change the attitude of lawyers and politicians about criminals who had a history of instability and how they should be treated.

Despite being a major force in academia - Professor Walker was a Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford, and Professor of Criminology and a Fellow of King's College, Cambridge - he delighted in maintaining an independent mind and opinion on a variety of subjects.

Nigel David Walker was born in Tianjin, a mining town in northern China, where his father was British vice-consul and latterly aide-de-camp to the last Emperor, Pu Yi, after he had fled from Peking.

Professor Walker and his mother returned to Scotland and he attended the Edinburgh Academy. He entered the school in 1927 and was Dux in 1935. He won a scholarship to read Greats at Christ Church, Oxford, and his outstanding academic ability was recognised when he was made an honorary scholar in his first year after winning the Chancellor's prize for an original Latin poem. He just missed a First and joined the civil service and was posted to the Scottish Office just before war was declared.

Initially he served with the 5th Cameron Highlanders training at Ayr Racecourse before being transferred to the Lovat Scouts where he was appointed weapons training officer at their camp in Dunbar. Most of the recruits he trained were Gaelic speakers from the Hebrides. Professor Walker discovered that Gallic for 'map reference' was, much to his relief, 'map reference'.

He then saw active service with the Lovat Scouts in Italy during the advance through the Apennine Hills. He was one of the first casualties when he was badly wounded in the leg.

He was seconded to the bodyguard to the Royal family at Balmoral where his duties were more relaxed and included playing games such as Grandmother's Footsteps with the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret-Rose.

In 1946 he returned to the Scottish Office in St Andrews House and for the next 12 years served in a variety of departments at a senior level. For three years he was private secretary to Lord Home - whom he much admired - and in his spare time Professor Walker wrote his PhD at Edinburgh University.

He left the Scottish Office in 1960 and was appointed Reader in Criminology at Oxford University. Contact between students and prisoners was a vital factor in his teaching and he set up discussion groups between students and criminals in a local prison. Such was his reputation he was asked to lecture at many academic institutions - notably in South Africa and the US.

He wrote widely on the subject of criminology and sat on many national committees mostly concerned with sentencing, the effects of imprisonment and the treatment of prisoners.

In 1975, he played an eminent part in the Lord (Richard) Butler Committee whose recommendations were responsible for the setting up of secure psychiatric units in every region of the country.

In 1973 he was appointed Professor of Criminology at King's College, Cambridge. He was also awarded an honorary degree from Edinburgh University and made an honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

In 1997 Cambridge University initiated The Nigel Walker Lecture which has been presented annually by eminent criminologists. From 2006 the Nigel Walker Prize has been awarded annually to students who have made an outstanding written contribution (usually a Ph.D.) to the field of criminology.

Professor Walker, who was appointed a CBE in 1979, remained independent both professionally and personally all his life. He himself once wrote that he was, "disinclined to call himself a criminologist, preferring the term penologist instead."

He was an avid hill walker and climber - both in the Dolomites and the Cairngorms - and a keen chess player.

He retired from full-time work in 1984, but wrote several more books, including Dangerous People (1996) plus his own memoirs, and continued teaching. He is survived by his two sisters, his daughter Valerie. His wife, Sheila Johnston, whom he married in 1939 predeceased him.