The Letters From James W. Walker

THE LETTERS FROM

JAMES W. WALKER

As you will have seen earlier, Jim Walker's wife, Polly, died as they were packing to emigrate to New Zealand, this was in February, 1919. Inspite of this sad situation, and perhaps partly because of it, his resolve to emigrate was unchanged and this he did shortly afterwards with his two sons, Jamie and Roy.

His "Power of Attorney" reads :-

KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS that I, JAMES WILSON WALKER, of Measham in the County of Leicester being about to leave England and to reside abroad do this twenty second day of April, one thousand nine hundred and twenty hereby appoint JOHN STANFIELD of The Wharf, Measham aforesaid draper to be my attorney for the purposes hereinafter mentioned :-

Polly (Mary Ann) was the daughter George and Annie Elizabeth Smith and Annie was the sister of Joseph and William Liggins, who of course by this time, had been in New Zealand a number of years.

Jim Walker and his family were in fact the last group to go out, as Joe Smith emigrated in 1912, but as Jim's letters cover a relatively short period, 1922-4, it is better to include them here. Joe Smith's letters cover the period 1917 to 1939.

Previous letters have been transcribed mostly in their entirety but these letters of Jim's have been edited further as they have some parts which are of no interest today.

Mrs. Kennedy was their housekeeper while the boys were small.

These letters are again written to John and Catherine Stanfield.

Very recently a picture postcard has come to light which is of the ship S.S. "Ayrshire" and is written by Roy Walker when he was on board this ship and they were actually emigrating to New Zealand. Roy was born 17th May, 1908 and so he would have been 12 years old when he wrote this card. It reads :-

Dear Cousin,

We are having a grand time with the officers on board. We have been having nice weather most of the time but one day we were all very sick but I fared best. We stop at Newport in two days.

Give my love to all.

Roy

It was posted at Newport, Rhode Island, USA on the 22nd July, 1920 and is addressed to Miss. Stanfield (my mother), The Wharf, Measham, Leise. This misspelt and incomplete address caused problems with the postal authorities because in blue crayon is written "Try England", then "Masham", where it was sent because there is a date stamp - Masham, Yorkshire 7 AU 20 and finally "Try Measham, Leics. -Atherstone.

From this card it would appear that there was quite a long period between Polly’s death and the time when Jim Walker finally decided to emigrate.

Jim and Polly Walker with their first son, Jamie