He was born in London and grown up in Salisbury. His parents were members of the Communist Party. Through the Young Communist League he met his future partner, David Fernbach, with whom he has lived since 1964.

In the summer of 1970, after Aubrey Walter had completed his sociology degree at the London School of Economics (LSE), he went to New York, having read about the GLF in The Times. There he met Bob Mellors, a 20-year-old who had also been a student at the LSE.

On returning to London they held a meeting for the GLF in a basement room of the LSE on 13th. October, 1970. The first ever public gay protest in Britain took place on 27th. November, 1970 when approximately 80 GLF members gathered for a torchlight demonstration on Highbury Fields in what was then the working class area of Islington.

In August 1971 the GLF organised a further public event when members marched along Islington's Upper Street back to Highbury Fields. This was an exclusively GLF event but led to the first real Pride in London in 1972.