R
Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)
Guest
Very interesting piece Kevin with much food for thought.
As someone who knew the man, met him, discussed angling with him and corresponded with him for some time, here's my short resume of Richard Walker.
First of all Walker had a private education. He certainly qualified to attend Cambridge University where he spent several years prior to WW2 reading electrical engineering at Caeus College.
Then came WW2. He volunteered for the Home Guard but was soon packed off to the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough to work on airborn radar.
At the end of the war, he wanted to go back to Cambridge to finish his degree but his mother - Elsie May Walker, who had financed all his education, couldn't afford that, so **** joined Lloyds and Company of Letchworth, his mother's company as a design draughtsman. They made Lawnmowers.
In between all this of course, Walker went fishing. Most of his fishing at this time was spent on his local trout streams of course. But **** became interested in Carp for a while and most of you know the rest.
Angling was a complete passion with Walker. He applied his scientific training to the sport. Because of his intense "feud" with wanting to catch fish, he attracted many highly skilled, dedicated, and passionate anglers amongst his intimate circle of friends, notably Pete Thomas, Peter Stone, Fred J Taylor, Pat Russel, Fred Buller and others.
He wrote for magazines of course. Most of the time he was asked to write by the magazines themselves.
Some people called him arrogant. He could often seem that way, yet when you finally met him, arrogance was not in his character. He assumed you were are passionate about angling as he. He was extremely generous and if he gave you something he never wanted anything in return.
He loved having an arguement - intelligently of course, yet he would not suffer fools.
He was certainly a catalyst that got together many other great anglers and made them think, either by his writings or personally. He spent a great deal of time telling others that they were far better anglers than he.
He motivated and inspired.
He was a "One off."
I am at the moment working on a review of the recently published book - "The Walker/Stone Letters". This recent publication will certainly give a further insight into the mind of this great angler.
As someone who knew the man, met him, discussed angling with him and corresponded with him for some time, here's my short resume of Richard Walker.
First of all Walker had a private education. He certainly qualified to attend Cambridge University where he spent several years prior to WW2 reading electrical engineering at Caeus College.
Then came WW2. He volunteered for the Home Guard but was soon packed off to the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough to work on airborn radar.
At the end of the war, he wanted to go back to Cambridge to finish his degree but his mother - Elsie May Walker, who had financed all his education, couldn't afford that, so **** joined Lloyds and Company of Letchworth, his mother's company as a design draughtsman. They made Lawnmowers.
In between all this of course, Walker went fishing. Most of his fishing at this time was spent on his local trout streams of course. But **** became interested in Carp for a while and most of you know the rest.
Angling was a complete passion with Walker. He applied his scientific training to the sport. Because of his intense "feud" with wanting to catch fish, he attracted many highly skilled, dedicated, and passionate anglers amongst his intimate circle of friends, notably Pete Thomas, Peter Stone, Fred J Taylor, Pat Russel, Fred Buller and others.
He wrote for magazines of course. Most of the time he was asked to write by the magazines themselves.
Some people called him arrogant. He could often seem that way, yet when you finally met him, arrogance was not in his character. He assumed you were are passionate about angling as he. He was extremely generous and if he gave you something he never wanted anything in return.
He loved having an arguement - intelligently of course, yet he would not suffer fools.
He was certainly a catalyst that got together many other great anglers and made them think, either by his writings or personally. He spent a great deal of time telling others that they were far better anglers than he.
He motivated and inspired.
He was a "One off."
I am at the moment working on a review of the recently published book - "The Walker/Stone Letters". This recent publication will certainly give a further insight into the mind of this great angler.