George Washington Walker

George Washington Walker (1800 – 1859) was the twenty-first child of John, a Unitarian saddle maker who worked in Paris. After the death of his mother, Elizabeth, young George was sent to Newcastle so that his grandmother could raise him. He was apprenticed to a Quaker linen draper, whom he admired so much that he adopted the faith. In 1831, when Walker left for Australia and South Africa as a companion to James Backhouse on his voyage to the colonies, he planned to return to England but in 1834 decided to settle in Hobart after meeting Sarah Benson Mather, who married him in 1840. Walker ran a successful drapery business where he opened a savings bank to encourage people to save. His social concerns included temperance, education, penal reform, destitute women, and the treatment of the Aborigines.

Sources: Australian Dictionary of Biography; Companion to Tasmanian History.

Washington Walker book

George Washington Walker

 

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