Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 59.djvu/52

 28 Feb. 1861. He had become colonel in the army on 14 Dec. 1860.

Having returned to England, he went on half-pay on 11 June 1861, and on 1 July was appointed assistant quartermaster-general at Shorncliffe. He remained there till 31 March 1865. On 26 April he was made military attaché to the embassy at Berlin, and he held that post for nearly twelve years. In the Austro-Prussian war of 1866 he was attached to the headquarters of the crown prince's army as British military commissioner; he witnessed the battles of Nachod and Königgratz, and received the medal. The order of the red eagle (second class) was offered him, but he was not able to accept it. He was again attached to the crown prince's army in the Franco-German war of 1870–1, and was present at Weissenburg, Wörth, Sedan, and throughout the siege of Paris. He was given the medal and the iron cross. The irritation of the Germans against England and the number of roving Englishmen made his duty not an easy one; but he was well qualified for it by his tact and geniality, and his action met with the full approval of the government.

He was promoted major-general on 29 Dec. 1873, his rank being afterwards antedated to 6 March 1868. He resigned his post at Berlin on 31 March 1877, and became lieutenant-general on 1 Oct. On 19 Jan. 1878 he was made inspector-general of military education, and he held that appointment till 7 Oct. 1884, when he was placed on the retired list with the honorary rank of general. He had been made K.C.B. on 24 May 1881, and colonel of the 2nd dragoon guards on 22 Dec. in that year. He died in London on 19 Jan. 1894, and was buried in Brompton cemetery.

He had married in 1845 Georgiana, daughter of Captain Richard Armstrong of the 100th foot. She survived him.

He published: 1. ‘The Organisation and Tactics of the Cavalry Division’ (52 pp.). 2. A translation of Major-general von Schmidt's ‘Instructions for Regiments taking part in the Manœuvres of a Cavalry Division;’ both of them in 1876, London, 8vo. Extracts from his letters and journals during active service were published after his death under the title ‘Days of a Soldier's Life’ (London, 1894), and contain much that is of general as well as of personal interest, especially in regard to the German wars.

[Days of a Soldier's Life; Standard, 22 Jan. 1894; Official Army List, January 1884; private information.] 

WALKER, CHARLES VINCENT (1812–1882), electrical engineer, born in 1812, was educated as an engineer. As early as 1838 he recognised the importance of the study of the science of electricity, and took an active part in the newly formed London Electrical Society, of which he was appointed secretary in 1843. He first acquired a reputation in 1841 by completing the second volume and editing the entire manuscript of Dionysius Lardner's ‘Manual of Electricity, Magnetism, and Meteorology,’ which formed part of his Cabinet Cyclopædia. From 1845 to 1846 he acted as editor of the ‘Electric Magazine,’ and in 1845 he was appointed electrician to the South-Eastern Railway Company, a post which he held till his death. During his connection with the company he introduced many improvements in the railway system, among others an apparatus to enable passengers to communicate with the guard, for which he took out a patent (No. 347) on 5 Feb. 1866; and a ‘train describer,’ for indicating trains on a distant dial, patented on 24 March 1876 (No. 1026).

Walker also interested himself in submarine telegraphy, and on 13 Oct. 1848 sent the first submarine message from a ship two miles off Folkestone to London Bridge, the shore end of the cable being connected with a land line. In 1849 he assisted James Glaisher and George Biddell Airy, the astronomer royal, to introduce a system of time signals, which were transmitted from the royal observatory at Greenwich to various local centres by means of telegraph wires, an improvement of considerable benefit to commerce and navigation (Nature, xiv. 50, 110). On 7 June 1855 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society; on 8 Jan. 1858 a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society; in 1876 he filled the office of president of the Society of Telegraph Engineers and of Electricians; and in 1869 and 1870 he was president of the Meteorological Society, of which he had been elected a member on 4 June 1850. Walker died at his residence at Tunbridge Wells on 24 Dec. 1882.

He was the author of: 1. ‘Electrotype Manipulation,’ 2 parts, London, 1841, 8vo; pt. i. 24th edit. 1850; pt. ii. 12th edit. 1849. 2. ‘Electric Telegraph Manipulation,’ London, 1850, 8vo. These works were translated into French and German. He edited Jeremiah Joyce's ‘Scientific Dialogues’ (London, 1846, 8vo), and translated Ludwig Friedrich Kaemtz's ‘Complete Course of Meteorology’ (London, 1845, 12mo), and Auguste de La Rive's ‘Treatise on Electricity’ (London, 1853–8, 3 vols. 8vo). 