Fonds F1864 - Colonel James H. Walker fonds

James H. Walker, 1846-1936, was born near Hamilton, Ontario. In 1876 he married Euphemia Davidson Quarrie, ?-1928, also from Ontario and they had one son, W.J. Selby Walker, 1879-1952. In 1920 Selby married Ruth Agnes Shine, ?-1987, and they had two children, Alan, ?-1929, and Mary (Lynas), 1922-2011. James was a member of the North-West Mounted Police (NWMP), 1874-1881, then the manager of Cochrane Ranche at Big Hill (now Cochrane, Alberta), 1881-1882. In 1882 he took over a sawmill built by the Cochrane Ranche Company, and also established a farm east of Calgary (part of which is now the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary). The Bow River Saw and Planing Mills supplied much of the lumber for the new community.

A prominent Calgarian, he was instrumental in establishing Calgary's first school district in 1885, and served as chairman (1896-1900, 1913) and trustee (1895-1900, 1902-1905, 1908-1912). He was elected chairman of the first civic council, was president of the first agricultural society and director of the first general hospital. He organized the home guard during the 1885 Riel Rebellion (North West Rebellion), was Lt.-Col. of the 15th Light Horse, 1905-1911, and during the First World War served overseas as the Commanding Officer of the Canadian Forestry Corps. In 1975 Walker was chosen as Calgary's "Citizen of the Century". Colonel Walker School in Calgary was named in his honour in 1911. James Walker Creek, Alberta, and Mount James Walker, Alberta are also named for him.

For further information see Colonel Walker, Man of the Western Frontier / Grant MacEwan. -- Saskatoon : Western Producer Prairie Books, 1989; "My Life in the North-West Mounted Police" in Alberta Historical Review. -- vol. 8, no.1 (Winter 1960), p. 1-1; and Max Foran's entry, "James Walker", in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, (at www.biographi.ca).