John Walker (Presbyterian minister)

Walker was born in Oxton, Cheshire county, England, in a family with strong Scottish and Presbyterian roots, and was educated at Birkenhead.

He was then offered the charge of a new church at Burwood, but elected to take the remote post of Germanton (now Holbrook) at the head of the Murray River, several days' journey on horseback.

[8] He resigned by necessity when he moved to Victoria[9] — in 1908 he accepted a call to St Andrew's Kirk, Ballarat,[10] and took up his new post in April, only the church's third minister[a] in 50 years.

[9] All five sons enlisted for military service: four with the First AIF and Noel B. D. Walker, who had been working in Fiji, joined the King's Own Rifles.

On 1 January 1927 he formally retired from the Ballarat charge[15] and was inducted as Canberra's first Presbyterian minister,[16] and was largely responsible for the erection of the church building, at 1 State Circle, Forrest (the Canberra Avenue corner), and retired shortly after its completion in 1930[9] [17][18] The plans included a "Warriors' Chapel", a screened-off space within the church, dedicated to Presbyterians who volunteered for service in time of war, especially those who lost their lives in the conflict, perhaps reflecting Walker's three sons lost in the Great War of 1914–1918.

Dr James Cameron (died October 1905)[21] in editing a near-500-page History of the Presbyterian Church, N.S.W.,[22] published in 1905, and favorably reviewed.