James Walker and Family Conclusion

CONCLUSION

Life was obviously very difficult for Jim Walker in the early days of his life in New Zealand with his two sons still at school and only a housekeeper to look after things at home. The photographs that we have of him show that he was not a physically strong man and he would have found that cutting his farm out of the bush would have been almost impossible for him to do. However, he survived these first years and subsequently made steady progress with the help of his two sons when they left school.

Jamie subsequently became a bank manager in Palmerston North. Roy became a civil engineer and worked on a number of large schemes including one in Pakistan. After its completion in 1958 he came to England, with his wife Lilian, and stayed with my Mother at "The Wharf".

In the letter where Jim congratulated his uncle on the birth of his first grandson - this was my brother Jack Wheatcroft.

The other family to whom he refers was Joe Smith, his wife, Edie, and their children and it was he who wrote the last group of letters which follow.

Jim Walker with his two sons, Jamie and Roy.

when they had left school