Thomas Walker emigrated in 1856 from Yorkshire, England, to Listowel, Canada West with his wife of French and English heritage.

Thomas purchased land for lumber in the western area of the United Province of Canada and Horatio was raised in relative comfort.

Writing in 1928, Hector Charlesworth suggested that Walker was "chucked down the stairs" and fired for quarrelling with a family relative.

However, it is more likely that Walker travelled to Philadelphia for the American Centennial in 1876, an exhibition where Notman and Fraser won the international award, which gave the firm the privilege of exclusive photographic rights for the celebrations.

[2] During the period of Walker's life around 1878, he would have become familiar with the painters of the Barbizon school, which were at the time, exhibited in American museums and galleries.

In 1880, Walker made an extended trip to Europe to learn more about Barbizon methods, and its agrarian subject matter, that would come to define his painting for the rest of his life.

[2] Walker's personal life was disastrous: his daughter died of diphtheria, his son of tuberculosis and his wife Jeanette, was committed to hospital permanently in 1914 due to paranoia.