Walter Bayliss was an active member in the 1980s of the British Ice Hockey Writers Association, the predecessor of IHJUK.

He was a class photographer of ice hockey, both action and portrait through out the 1980s and into the early years of the ‘90s

Walter first took an interest in the sport when his sons Paul and Gary started playing for Altrincham Aces from the late 1970s. This provided the opening and later contacts to make his photos more widely known.

From October 1984 he was supplying pictures to Phil Drackett’s new monthly Ice Hockey World magazine and by the next year to Stewart Roberts’ The Ice Hockey Annual. From October 1985 to 1990 his work featured extensively in the fortnightly Ice Hockey News Review.

His photos also appeared in three books on the sport – namely Flashing Blades, Homes of British Ice Hockey and The British Ice Hockey Hall of Fame.

In his later years he suffered heart problems and diabetes which kept him away from the rinks.

Walter Bayliss was born on 1 June 1938 at Lymm, Cheshire and as an adult worked as an accountant . He spent the last 12 weeks of his life in Wythenshawe Hospital where he died on 26 April 2009.