Thomas Walker

Thomas Walker (5 February 1858 – 10 May 1932) was an Australian politician, a member of two different state parliaments. Walker was born in Preston, Lancashire, England, the son of corn miller and merchant Thomas Walker, and Ellen née Eccles. He was educated at Leyland Grammar School, then worked as a schoolteacher at Preston for two years. He then emigrated to Canada, where he worked as a farmhand and chemist's assistant. After returning to the United Kingdom he work as a journalist on the Preston Herald. He later spent some time in Toledo, Ohio, U.S., where he spent 1876 lecturing on evolution and the occult. The following year he toured through New South Wales, England and South Africa, lecturing on spiritualism and politics. While in South Africa in 1881, he married Andrietta Maria Somers, with whom he would have two sons and two daughters. Walker returned to Australia in 1882, spending some time in Victoria before settling in New South Wales. He became a prominent public figure through his political lectures, in which he argued for secularism and an immediate separation of New South Wales from England. In February 1885 he played a prominent role in a meeting held to discuss British government policy towards the Pacific Islands, and shortly afterwards he was involved in opposing the deployment of New South Wales troops to the Sudan. On 17 February 1887 Walker was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Northumberland as a Protectionist. He continued to push for separation from England, helping to form the short-lived Republican Union and Republican League. He held his Legislative Assembly seat until the election of 25 June 1894, when he unsuccessfully contested the seat of Wallsend. He contested the seat again the following year without success. Some time after 1894, Walker visited New Zealand, where he taught elocution, promoted temperance, lectured on various subjects, and wrote for the press. On returning to New South Wales he unsuccessful