Researching Robert Walker

Walker was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, the son of G.H. Walker and Jean McMillan, and was educated in Mazenod and at the University of Saskatchewan. In 1941, he married Rosa Rebecca Nagel.

First elected to the Saskatchewan assembly as the CCF member for Hanley constituency in the 1948 general election, he went on to re-election in 1952, and 1956. In 1956 he joined the cabinet of Premier Tommy Douglas as Attorney General and Provincial Secretary. He continued in those roles following his re-election in 1960. After Douglas left to lead the federal NDP in 1961, Woodrow Lloyd became premier and the first universal medical care plan in Canada was introduced after the doctor's strike. In the 1964 general election, Walker was narrowly defeated according to the count on election day, but the election was voided He was re-elected in the subsequent by-election in December 1964 and served in the CCF-NDP opposition until he was defeated in the 1967 general election.

After he left the cabinet in 1964, he resumed the practice of law in Saskatoon until 1984 when he retired to Victoria, British Columbia where he died in 1989. He was survived by his wife, Rosa Rebecca Nagel (who died in Victoria in 2005), 4 children and many grandchildren.

Robert Jarvis Cochran Walker was born near West Chester, Pennsylvania. He attended school at East Hampton, Massachusetts, and Cambridge, Massachusetts. He graduated from the law department of Harvard University in 1858, was admitted to the bar in 1859 and commenced practice in Philadelphia. He served as director of the first school district of Pennsylvania, and was twice elected to the council of Philadelphia. He purchased the Saturday Evening Post in 1874 and was its editor for a short time. He was engaged in the production of oil. He moved to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, in 1875 and engaged in land, lumber, and coal developments.

Walker was elected as a Republican to the Forty-seventh Congress. He declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1882 but his name was presented by his friends. He returned to Philadelphia in 1890 and became a manufacturing chemist. He died in Philadelphia in 1903. Interment in Laurel Hill Cemetery.

In March 2009 Walker was loaned to Åtvidabergs FF until 30 June 2009. He was given the number 6 shirt. During his loan spell at Åtvidaberg, he played 11 times and scored two goals. In February 2010 Walker joined Superettan side Jönköpings Södra IF having seen out his Örebro contract, which expired in January. While at Jönköpings Södra, Walker helped them avoid relegation in 2010 by scoring in a relegation play-off against IK Sirius. During the 2011 season Walker scored three goals as J-Södra again avoided relegation. He left the club at the end of 2011.

In 2012 Walker joined Örebro-based side BK Forward on a free transfer.

Walker was the son of Thomas Walker, a merchant of Exeter, and his wife Margery Baker, daughter of John Baker of Thorncombe, Devon. In 1622 he was made Freeman of Exeter. He was bailiff from 1626 to 1627 and was a common councilman from 1628 to about 1649. He was receiver from 1633 to 1634 and sheriff from 1634 to 1635. In 1636 he became governor of the merchant adventurers. He was Mayor of Exeter for 1639–40.

In April 1640, Walker was elected Member of Parliament for Exeter for the Short Parliament. In November 1640 he was re-elected as MP in the Long Parliament. He supported the King after 1642 and was disabled from sitting in parliament on 6 March 1643 for not appearing on diverse summons of the House. In April 1646 Walker was one of those who negotiated the surrender of Exeter to Parliament at Poltimore House. After the Restoration, Walker was common councilman again from June 1660 and commissioner for assessment for Exeter from August 1660 until his death. He was elected MP for Exeter on 16 Apr 1661 for the Cavalier Parliament and held the seat until his death in 1673. From 1661 to 1663 he was commissioner for assessment for Devon. He was Deputy Lieutenant of Exeter from 1670.

Walker married firstly Margaret Parkins, daughter of John Parkins of Dorchester. He married secondly Mary Cotton, daughter of William Cotton, precentor of Exeter Cathedral on 19 May 1630. They had five sons and four daughters.

Born in Carstairs, Lanarkshire to a family of farm workers, Walker initially worked on the railways, before moving to England. He enlisted in the British Army and served in the Second Boer War. When demobbed, he became involved in trade union organising in the English Midlands, for National Union of Agricultural Workers (NUAW), soon moving to join its head office, in Fakenham.

Active in the Labour Party, Walker stood unsuccessfully in King's Lynn at the 1918 and 1922 general elections, then at Ormskirk in 1923 and 1924. He was asked to stand at the 1923 Ludlow by-election, but declined, correctly judging that the party had little support in the area.

Walker was elected as general secretary of the NUAW in 1912 and pursued a radical, socialist programme. In 1918, he moved the union's headquarters from Fakenham to London in an attempt to broaden its national appeal, but this initially had little success, and removed him from direct influence in the union's activities in the county. He achieved a national profile with the Trades Union Congress, being elected to its Parliamentary Committee in 1917, then serving as president in 1921–22.

In 1928, Walker stood down as general secretary of the NUAW in controversial circumstances. Although the union officially stated that he had retired on age grounds, it was hinted that he had been forced out on ground of financial impropriety. He subsequently emigrated to Australia.

He died in Perth in 1961.

He was born in Northampton, England. He was a pupil at Northampton Grammar School (now Northampton School for Boys), and at the same time studied organ with John Bertalot and sang in the choir at St Matthew's Church, Northampton. He spent a pre-university year at the Royal School of Church Music in 1964 before gaining a choral scholarship as a countertenor at Jesus College, Cambridge in 1965, Subsequently, he was appointed to an organ scholarship at the same college. At Cambridge University he studied composition with Roger Smalley and organ with Arthur Wills (organist at Ely Cathedral). Whilst still at Cambridge he was appointed organist and Master of the Choristers at St James's Parish Church, Great Grimsby (now Grimsby Minster) and taught music at St. James's Choir School. In November 1968 he founded and conducted the Grimsby Bach Choir. During his time at Grimsby (1968–1973) he had private conducting lessons from Sir Adrian Boult, and a number of compositions were performed, including Three Songs of Gerard Manley Hopkins broadcast by Norma Procter and Paul Hamburger on BBC Radio 3.

In 1973 Walker left full-time employment to devote as much time to composition as possible. He studied composition with Peter Maxwell Davies at Dartington International Summer School. His first major commissions were to write two anthems for the enthronement of Dr. Donald Coggan as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1974: Psalm 150 and Thou Wilt Keep Him in Perfect Peace. In 1975 he took a lease on 'Brinkwells', Fittleworth, a dilapidated and remote thatched cottage in West Sussex where Edward Elgar had written his Cello Concerto and late chamber works. He restored it, and lived there until 1991. During the 1980s he began to broadcast for the BBC, first with BBC Schools broadcasts and later writing and presenting television documentaries for BBC2. He also presented live broadcasts from the BBC Promenade Concerts. Fascinated by Balinese gamelan music and dance he moved to the island of Bali and lived first in Ubud and later in a house he built himself in Karangasem where he played in the local gamelan orchestra. In 2000 the political situation in Indonesia was not good, so he took up a lectureship at Mahidol University in Bangkok, where he also conducted the university orchestra and chorus. In 2002 he took up a similar position at the premier arts university in Bangkok, Silpakorn University. In 2004, he returned to the U.K. and to his native Northamptonshire where he still lives.