Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 59.djvu/51

Walker  serving in the Asia, Britannia, and Barham, and was made commander on 15 July 1834. In that rank he served in the Vanguard, in the Mediterranean, from September 1836 till his promotion to post rank on 24 Nov. 1838. By permission of the admiralty he then accepted a command in the Turkish navy, in which he was known at first as Walker Bey, and afterwards as Yavir Pasha. In July 1840 the Capitan Pasha took the fleet to Alexandria and delivered it over to Mehemet Ali, who then refused to let it go. Walker summoned the Turkish captains to a council of war, and proposed to them to land in the night, surround the palace, carry off Mehemet Ali, and send him lo Constantinople. This would probably have been done had not Mehemet Ali meantime consented to let the ships go. (Memoirs of Henry Rose, i. 285- 286). Walker afterwards commanded the Turkish squadron at the reduction of Acre [see ], for which service he was nominated a K.C.B. on 12 Jan. 1841; he also received from the allied sovereigns the second class of the Iron Crown of Austria, of St. Anne of Russia, and of the Red Eagle of Prussia.

Returning to England in 1845, he commanded the Queen as flag-captain to Sir John West at Devonport, and in 1846-7 the Constance frigate in the Pacific. From 1848 to 1860 he was Surveyor of the navy; he was created a baronet on 19 July 1856; he became a rear-admiral in January 1858, and in February 1861 was appointed commander-in-chief at the Cape of Good Hope, whence he returned in 1864. He became vice-admiral on 10 Feb. 1865, and admiral on 27 Feb. 1870. He died on 12 Feb. 1876. He married, on 9 Sept. 1834, Mary Catherine (d. 1889), only daughter of Captain John Worth, R.N. , and had issue. His eldest son. Sir Baldwin Wake Walker, the present baronet, Is a captain in the navy, and at the present time (1899) assistant director of torpedoes; his second son, Charles, was lost in the Captain on 7 Sept. 1870.

[O'Byrne's Naval Biogr Dict.; Times, 15 Feb. 1876; Navy Lists; Burke's Peerage, 1895] 

WALKER, CHARLES PYNDAR BEAUCHAMP (1817–1894), general, born on 7 Oct. 1817, was eldest son of Charles Ludlow Walker, J.P. and D.L. of Gloucestershire, of Redland, near Bristol, by Mary Anne, daughter of Rev. Reginald Pyndar of Hadsor, Worcestershire, and Kempley, Gloucestershire, cousin of the first Earl Beauchamp. He was a commoner at Winchester College from 1831 to 1833 (, Winchester Commoners, p. 32). He was commissioned as ensign in the 33rd foot on 27 Feb. 1836, became lieutenant on 21 June 1839, and captain on 22 Dec. 1846. He served with that regiment at Gibraltar, in the West Indies, and in North America. On 16 Nov. 1849 he exchanged into the 7th dragoon guards.

On 25 March 1854 he was appointed aide-de-camp to Lord Lucan, who commanded the cavalry division in the army sent to the East. He was present at Alma, Balaclava, and Inkerman, and was mentioned in despatches (London Gazette, 17 Nov. 1854). In the middle of October he was ordered on board ship for a change, and this enabled him to be present at the naval attack on Sebastopol on 17 Oct., where he acted as aide-de-camp to Lord George Paulet on board the Bellerophon. He was given the medal for naval service, as well as the Crimean medal with four clasps, the Turkish medal, and the Medjidie (fifth class).

On 8 Dec. 1854 he was promoted major in his regiment, and in anticipation of this he left the Crimea at the beginning of that month. He was appointed assistant quartermaster-general in Ireland on 9 July 1855, and on 9 Nov. he was given an unattached lieutenant-colonelcy. On 7 Dec. 1858 he became lieutenant-colonel of the 2nd dragoon guards. He joined that regiment in India, and took part in the later operations for the suppression of the mutiny. He commanded a field force in Oudh, with which he defeated the rebels at Bangaon on 27 April 1859, and a month afterwards shared in the action of the Jirwah Pass under Sir Hope Grant. He was mentioned in despatches (Lond. Gaz. 22 July and 2 Sept. 1859), and received the medal.

From India he went on to China, being appointed on 14 May 1860 assistant quartermaster-general of cavalry in Sir Hope Grant's expedition. He was present at the actions of Sinho, Chankiawan, and Palikao. In the advance on Pekin it fell to him to go on ahead to select the camping-grounds, and on 16 Sept., when Sir Harry Smith Parkes [q. v.], and others were treacherously seized during the truce, he narrowly escaped. While waiting for Parkes outside Tungchow he saw a French officer attacked by the Chinese and went to his assistance. His sword was snatched from him, and several men tried to pull him off his horse, but he shook them off, and galloped back to the British camp with his party of five men under a fire of small arms and artillery. He was mentioned in despatches, received the medal with two clasps, and was made C.B. on