WALKER

UNITED KINGDOM (see also List of Individuals)

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28.10.1781 Falkirk/UK - 8.10.1852 London/UK

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James Walker received basic education at a college in Glasgow. During a visit to London, he there met a leading engineer who discovered the abilities of Walker and brought him into contact with William Jessop (1745-1814). Walker founded in 1811 his consulting firm in London and took in 1829 his colleague into partnership to form Walker & Burges. By 1832 Walker had an office in West Minster, at 23 Great George Street, where he remained until his death and where the Institution of Civil Engineers ICE has its current headquarters. Walker was an early Member ICE and became the second ICE president from 1835 to 1844, following Thomas Telford. Walker was described as a most active, persevering and zealous president, constant in his attendance, liberal in his gifts, courteous in the chair and, though somewhat wanting in dignity perhaps, still the best, decidedly the best, to preside the Society. During his office the Transactions from 1836 to 1840, and then the Proceedings ICE from 1842 were initiated as one of the earliest civil engineering journal.

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The works and projects of Walker include almost the entire spectrum of civil engineering, namely public works in London from the office foundation until around 1835, railways projects from the 1820s to the 1840s, marine works from 1830 including St. Helier Harbour in Jersey or the Alderney Harbour of Refuge. From 1834, Walker was consulted about Dover Harbour. He defined the perfect harbour as being "capable of receiving any class of vessels, under all circumstances of wind and tide." Walker further added considerably to lighthouses from the 1820s; during his long association with the Trinity House he designed and built all the important lighthouses of Britain to about 1850, including the design at Bishops Rock at the Scilly Isles in 1858. Walker was further interested in Fen drainage, rivers and canals. He was elected to the Royal Society in 1828, and was also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

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_{Gibb, A. (1935). The story of Telford. Maclehose: London.}

_{Smith, D. (1998). James Walker - Civil engineer. Trans. Newcomen Society 69: 23-55. P}

_{Walker, J. (1828). On the resistance of fluids to bodies passing through them. Phil. Trans. 118: 15-22.}

_{Walker, J. (1836). An account on the harbour and docks at Kingston-upon-Hill. ICE Transactions 1: 1-52.}

_{Walker, J. (1843). Address of the president. Minutes Institution of Civil Engineers 2: 22-31. Walker, J. (1848). Discussion to Harbours of refuge. Minutes ICE 7: 398-416.}