People Australia

Thomas Walker, n.d.

Walker, Thomas (1858-1932) barrister, journalist and parliamentarian

Birth: 5 February 1858 at Preston, Lancashire, England, son of Lancashire-born parents Thomas Walker (1827-1888), flour mill operative, and Ellen, née Eccles (1832-?). Marriage: 19 May 1881 at Graaff-Reinet, Cape Colony, South Africa, to South African born Andrietta Marie (Maria) Somers (1862-1939), daughter of William John Somers. They had two daughters and two sons. Death: 10 May 1932 at Sixth Avenue, Inglewood, Karrakatta, Western Australia. Religion: Anglican. 

• Educated at Leyland Grammar School, England. Two years as a schoolteacher at Preston.
• Emigrated to Canada, working as farmhand and chemist’s assistant. Returned to the United Kingdom. Journalist, Preston Herald then at Toledo, Ohio, United States of America.
• Arrived in Australia in 1877, lecturing in New South Wales, England and South Africa on spiritualism and politics. In 1882 he returned Australia; was in New Zealand in 1894 where he taught elocution, lectured, wrote for the press and worked for the temperance movement.
• Moved to Western Australia in 1899 where he worked as journalist on the Sunday Times, Kalgoorlie Sun and Kalgoorlie Miner. Editor Sunday Times and, until 1905, Kalgoorlie Sun. He studied law from about 1906 and was made a member of the Western Australian Bar in 1911. In 1912-1916 he was a member of the Senate of the University of Western Australia.
• Gave address at graveside of Thomas Edwards, Fremantle wharf martyr.
• Studied prohibition in USA, 1923.
• Member of the NSW Legislative Assembly for Northumberland (as a Protectionist) from February 1887 to June 1894.
• An Australian Labor Party member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly, for Kanowna, from October 1905 to his death in 1932. Minister for Justice and Education, October 1911 to July 1916; Attorney General from November 1911; Speaker, July 1924-July 1930.
• Cause of death: cerebral thrombosis, hemiplegia and heart failure. 

Sources
Westralian Worker, 6 July 1923, 13 May 1932; David Black and Geoffrey Bolton, Biographical Register of members of the parliament of Western Australia, vol 1, 1870-1930, (Perth, 1990); D. J.  Murphy, ed, Labor in Politics: State Labor Parties in Australia, 1880-1920 (St Lucia, Qld, 1975).