WALKER, Sir FREDERICK WILLIAM EDWARD FORESTIER- (1844–1910), general. [See Forestier-Walker.]
WALKER, FREDERICK WILLIAM (1830–1910), schoolmaster, was born in Bermondsey on 7 July 1830. He was the only son of Thomas Walker of Tullamore in Ireland, hat manufacturer, who claimed to be descended from George Walker [q. v.], the defender of Londonderry in 1689. His mother was Elizabeth Ellangton, of a Warwickshire family. He was sent in 1841 to St. Saviour's grammar school, Southwark, but during his early boyhood his parents went to live at Rugby, and he was entered as a day boy at Rugby school under Tait. Among his contemporaries was George Joachim Goschen [q. v. Suppl. II]. The two boys are said to have been coerced to fight for the amusement of their schoolfellows and to have displayed 'cumbrous ineptitude' (Elliot, Life of O. J. Goschen, 1911, i. 10). His father had suffered financial loss, and while at Rugby worked for some years in a hatter's shop, a fact which gave rise to a legend identifying him with Nixon, the school hatter mentioned in 'Tom Brown's School Days.'
In 1849 Walker won an open scholarship at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, after declining a Bible clerkship at Wadham. He took a first class in moderations in classics and a second in mathematics; in 1853 he won a first class in the final classical school, followed by a second in the final mathematical school; in 1854 he gained the Boden (Sanskrit) and the Vinerian (law) and Tancred (law) scholar- ships. He graduated B.A. in 1853, and proceeded M.A. in 1856. In 1854 he was entitled in due course to a fellowship at Corpus, but there was no vacancy for him to fill until 1859; he was appointed philosophical tutor, and in that capacity earned from Mark Pattison [q. v.] the title of 'malleus philosophorum.' About this time he spent six months in Dresden learning German with a special view to grammatical and philological study. He did miscellaneous educational work in England, acting as examiner of Grantham school for his college, as assistant master for a short time at Brighton College, and as private tutor in the family of the Bullers of Crediton, where Red vers Bvdler [q. v. Suppl. II] was his pupil. As a young man he was attracted by the high church doctrine, and his former headmaster. Dr. Tait, when bishop of London, urged him to take holy orders with a view to becoming his examining chaplain. On 26 Jan. 1858 he was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn, and joined the western circuit; but in 1859 the high mastership of Manchester grammar school, which was in the gift of the president of Corpus (see Oldham, Hugh), fell vacant; the post was offered to Walker, who reluctantly accepted it, mainly owing to the persuasions of Prof. John Matthias Wilson [q. v.].
Manchester grammar school was in 1859 a free school, with no power to charge fees, and with a decaying revenue derived partly from fishing rights in the Irk and partly from a monopoly in grinding corn, attached to a soke mill belonging to the school. The governing body was confined to members of the Church of England; the buildings were old and unsuitable; the scholars numbered barely 200; the educational system was obsolete. During Walker's tenure of office the school was completely reorganised in every direction; a change in the constitution of the governing body enlisted the help of the wealthy and able nonconformists of Manchester; the admission of fee-paying scholars, vehemently opposed by those who clung to the idea of a free school, put the finances of the school upon a secure basis; bequests and gifts to the amount of about 150,000l provided new buildings and scholarships. By the time that Walker left, the numbers of the school were second only to those of Eton; in intellectual distinction it was scarcely surpassed.
In 1876 Walker was elected high master of St. Paul's school, which at that time was situated at the east end of St. Paid's Churchyard; and he continued in that post until his retirement from active work in July 1905. St. Paul's in 1876— the only other school in England whose head bears the title of high master — was in some respects not unlike what Manchester grammar school had been in 1859; but its constitution had just been remodelled by the charity commissioners, and it possessed ample and increasing revenues. One hundred and fifty-three foundation scholars [see Colet, John] and a few paying pupils were educated at the school; the foundationers were generally chosen by patronage, and the traditions were not favourable to educational efficiency. The removal of the school from the City was contemplated, but its destination was uncertain. Walker at once set himself to organise the teaching and to revive the discipline; and in the eight years during
