Frederick Walker Archive

* 'Letter diary' of and articles by Frederick Walker relating to his trip to southern Africa in July-October 1907 as secretary of the Debenture Holders' Committee of the Beira Railway Company. Walker's letters, telegraphs and papers chronicle his trip, which included travelling through Port Elizabeth, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Mafeking, Crocodile Pools, Broken Hill, Bulawayo, Salisbury and Beira. His visit was on behalf of the Beira Railway Company in London as an inspector for its debenture holders committee. The correspondence is addressed mainly to JH Duncan, a director of the Beira Railway Company (based in London) and who presided over the committee. The papers include personal accounts of his visit and travels, and reports on a range of subjects including imported labour and the mines and whether the Transvaal would revolt.
* Letter dated 12 September 1907 from Lobatsi.
* Short biography of Frederick Walker (3pp.) from a privately published family history.

Frederick Walker was born in Teignmouth, Devon, on 28 October 1850, the second son of the Reverend Frederick John Walker and his wife, Frances Anne Walker (nee Tozer). Aged 16, he was articled to his maternal uncle, John Heltyer Tozer (1827-1896), a solicitor in Teignmouth, Devon. The last year of his Articles was spent in London. He qualified on 10 November 1871, and then worked for solicitors in Somerset and Staffordshire until he married Mary (Dolly) Vavasour Brown in October 1877. Mary Vavasour Brown was the fifth and youngest child of James Armitage Brown and his wife, Mary (nee Huxham). The couple lived in Newcastle-upon-Lyme, Staffordshire, until c.1881/2, when he purchased his own practice in Congleton, Cheshire. They had three children: Rainforth Armitage Walker (1886-1960); Edward Fanshawe Walker (born 1889); and Helen Elizabeth Vavasour Walker (1893-1967).
By 1894, Walker was chairman of the Shareholders’ Committee of the Securities Insurance Corporation Ltd and moved south to start a legal practice in Coleman Street in the City of London. He was on the boards of a number of companies and was secretary to the Debenture Holders' Committee of the Beira Railway Company. JH Duncan, T Palmer Gwatkin and AW Stirling were fellow committee members and Duncan was a director of the railway company. It was on behalf of the Committee that he went to Rhodesia in 1907, leaving England in July and arriving back in September 1907. He and his eldest son, Rainforth, disembarked at Port Elizabeth, South Africa, and then spent the next three months travelling by train to Johannesburg, then to Pretoria, Mafikeng, and on to Buleweyo and the Victoria Falls, from where a bridge had been built to Livingstone so the train lines could continue to the mine at Broken Hill (Kabwe in Zambia). This was the reason for Walker's visit. He was knowledgeable about the difficulties of separating the ores and visited the Broken Hill mine and reported on his findings to London and the Debenture Holders' Committee. At the close of 1906, some 8,965 tons of calcined ore was extracted and exported via Beira
In 1909, Walker was elected a member of the Court of Common Council for the Coleman Street Ward and obtained the Freedom of the City of London by redemption.
He died in 1921 at his Kensington home and his funeral was held at St Mary Abbot’s Church, Kensington on 22 February 1921. He was buried at Eaton Hastings, Berkshire.

Records are open to the public, subject to the overriding provisions of relevant legislation, including data protection laws.

Gifted to the Borthwick in 2012 by the family.

Frederick Walker was born in Teignmouth, Devon, on 28 October 1850, the second son of the Reverend Frederick John Walker and his wife, Frances Anne Walker (nee Tozer). Aged 16, he was articled to his maternal uncle, John Heltyer Tozer (1827-1896), a solicitor in Teignmouth, Devon. The last year of his Articles was spent in London. He qualified on 10 November 1871, and then worked for solicitors in Somerset and Staffordshire until he married Mary (Dolly) Vavasour Brown in October 1877. Mary Vavasour Brown was the fifth and youngest child of James Armitage Brown and his wife, Mary (nee Huxham). The couple lived in Newcastle-upon-Lyme, Staffordshire, until c.1881/2, when he purchased his own practice in Congleton, Cheshire. They had three children: Rainforth Armitage Walker (1886-1960); Edward Fanshawe Walker (born 1889); and Helen Elizabeth Vavasour Walker (1893-1967).
By 1894, Walker was chairman of the Shareholders’ Committee of the Securities Insurance Corporation Ltd and moved south to start a legal practice in Coleman Street in the City of London. He was on the boards of a number of companies and was secretary to the Debenture Holders' Committee of the Beira Railway Company. JH Duncan, T Palmer Gwatkin and AW Stirling were fellow committee members and Duncan was a director of the railway company. It was on behalf of the Committee that he went to Rhodesia in 1907, leaving England in July and arriving back in September 1907. He and his eldest son, Rainforth, disembarked at Port Elizabeth, South Africa, and then spent the next three months travelling by train to Johannesburg, then to Pretoria, Mafikeng, and on to Buleweyo and the Victoria Falls, from where a bridge had been built to Livingstone so the train lines could continue to the mine at Broken Hill (Kabwe in Zambia). This was the reason for Walker's visit. He was knowledgeable about the difficulties of separating the ores and visited the Broken Hill mine and reported on his findings to London and the Debenture Holders' Committee. At the close of 1906, some 8,965 tons of calcined ore was extracted and exported via Beira
In 1909, Walker was elected a member of the Court of Common Council for the Coleman Street Ward and obtained the Freedom of the City of London by redemption.
He died in 1921 at his Kensington home and his funeral was held at St Mary Abbot’s Church, Kensington on 22 February 1921. He was buried at Eaton Hastings, Berkshire.

A reprographics service is available to researchers. Copying will not be undertaken if there is any risk of damage to the document. Copies are supplied in accordance with the Borthwick Institute for Archives' terms and conditions for the supply of copies, and under provisions of any relevant copyright legislation. Permission to reproduce images of documents in the custody of the Borthwick Institute must be sought.

When Walker died in 1921 the papers went to his son, Rainforth, who had accompanied his father on the visit. From Rainforth (died 1960), they passed to the donors.

Further accruals are not expected.

* Borthwick Institute for Archives: The Oury Archive (GB 193 OURY).

* Buzandi Mufinda, ‘A History of Mining in Broken Hill (Kabwe) 1902-1929’ (MA thesis, University of the Free State, 2015).

Published

GB 193