In 1893, Walker travelled to London, working directly under the social reformer Octavia Hill at the Women's University Settlement in Southwark.
Walker returned to Dundee and focused further on improving the lives of the city's poor through her work with the DSU, despite being offered wardenship of a new settlement by Octavia Hill.
[8] The DSU produced reports factual on social conditions in Dundee, which were published by local politician and newspaper proprietor John Leng.
Walker and her professional colleague Mona Wilson undertook the data gathering arrangements on behalf of the DSU's Social Enquiry Committee for these publications.
[9] The reports dealt with housing conditions, household income and expenditure, women's paid work, infant mortality and child health.
[10] Infant mortality was recognised as a problem in Dundee and, under Walker's guidance, DSU opened a restaurant for working mothers was in the West Port in 1906.
The horse-drawn cortege was accompanied by a large number of people from different walks of life, 'in one of the largest funerals seen in Dundee for a considerable time' as described in The Courier.
[13] The procession left the town centre and continued on through Dundee to Balgay Cemetery, where Mary Lily Walker was interred in a grave topped with a Celtic cross, which still stands there.
[14] Grey Lodge Settlement is a registered Scottish charity and carries on the work Walker started; the association's minutes are held by Dundee City Archives.