WALKER, Alfred William
| Service Number: | 518 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 5th Queensland Imperial Bushmen |
| Born: | Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom, 1880 |
| Home Town: | Toowoomba, Toowoomba, Queensland |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Not yet discovered |
| Died: | Queensland, Australia, 5 August 1969, cause of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: | Not yet discovered |
| Memorials: |
Boer War Service
| 1 Oct 1899: | Involvement Private, 518, 5th Queensland Imperial Bushmen | |
|---|---|---|
| 10 Mar 1901: | Embarked Australian and Colonial Military Forces - Boer War Contingents, Private, 518, 5th Queensland Imperial Bushmen, AWM Boer War Unit Details, Murray p. 488 notes 5th QIB Draft embarked at Pinkenba 10 Mar 1901 aboard Chicago arriving Port Elizabeth 20 Apr 1901. | |
| 5 May 1902: | Discharged Australian and Colonial Military Forces - Boer War Contingents, Private, 518, 5th Queensland Imperial Bushmen, AWM Boer War Unit Details, Murray p. 491 notes 5th QIB embarked at Cape Town 27 Mar 1902 aboard St Andrew returning to Australia arriving Brisbane 30 Apr 1902, disbanded 5 May 1902. |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Claude McKelvey
When Alfred William Walker enlisted in 1901, he was part of a draft of men established to follow, and embarked some four days after, the main 5th QIB contingent to South Africa. The men in the draft were not included in the original nominal roll for the 5th Queensland Imperial Bushmen Contingent, held by National Archives. He is however, included in the Boer War Service Paybooks for the 5th QIB, Bk 4 p. 30, and in newspaper reports.
His details were published with the rank and file in The Queenslander, 16 Mar 1901, where his N.O.K. is recorded as his father H. Walker, Ruthven St, Toowoomba. in the Boer War Service Paybooks for the 5th QIB it is noted he directed part of his pay to H. Walker, watchmaker, Ruthven St, Toowoomba.
Alfred William Walker was born in 1880 in the district of Kinning Park, Glasgow, Scotland, a son to Henry Walker and Christina Walker (nee Sutherland). His father Henry was born in Coventry, England, a town famous for watchmaking and where he would later enter and learn that trade. He was working in Bristol as a watchmaker when he married Christina Sutherland, a native of Scotland, in 1874. Some time after marrying they moved to Glasgow, Scotland, working as a watchmaker where Alfred was born in 1880.
His parents and then siblings emigrated in 1884 to Toowoomba, Queensland, where his father had accepted the position of foreman at Messrs. Connell Bros. who had opened a branch of their Glasgow business in Toowoomba that year. A few years later his father left that business to found his own watchmaking and jewellery business in Toowoomba that grew to become the large concern known as Henry Walker and Sons.
Further siblings were born in Toowoomba. His father and mother passed in Toowoomba in 1912 and 1934 respectively and in the obituary for his mother, Alfred was noted as still residing in Toowoomba.
(source- AWM Boer War Nominal Roll, Murray p. 504; Qld State Archives- Boer War Service Paybooks 5th QIB, Bk 4 p. 30; Father's Obituaries- The Darling Downs Gazette, 21 Oct 1912, p. 4, and Toowoomba Chronicle, 21 Oct 1912, p. 5; Mother's Obituary- The Courier Mail, 17 Aug 1934, p. 6).