James Walker (surveyor general)

James Thomas Walker CB FRS (1 December 1826 – 16 February 1896) was an Anglo-Indian Surveyor General of India.

At the battle of Gujrat he was in command of a detachment of sappers attached to the Bombay horse artillery, and he took part under Sir Walter Gilbert in the pursuit of the Sikhs and Afghans.

After the subsequent annexation of the Punjab, he was employed from 1849 to 1853 in making a military reconnaissance of the northern-west frontier from Peshawar to Dera Ismail Khan.

He took part at the end of 1849 in the attacks on Suggao, Pali, and Zarmandi under Colonel Bradshaw, and was mentioned in his despatches for the skill and ability with which he had bridged the rapid Kabul River.

On the outbreak of the Indian mutiny in 1857, Walker accompanied Brigadier-general (later Sir) Neville Chamberlain to Delhi, where he was appointed a field-engineer.

When recovered he resumed work on the Indus survey, which was completed in 1860, and he was afterwards employed in the Jogi Tila meridional series.

In 1860 he again served under Sir Neville Chamberlain in the expedition against the Mahsud Waziris, and was present at the attack of the Barara Tanai.

On 1 January 1878 he was appointed Surveyor General of India, retaining the office of superintendent of the great trigonometrical survey.