During his youth he was an amateur sportsman, and played three times for the English football XI against Scotland, scoring four goals, in the 1870 to 1872 representative matches.

[1] At Sandhurst, he showed himself to be a keen all-round sportsman, representing the college at athletics in 1869 and 1870 in competitions with the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich.

Alcock, resulted in a goal to the side of England, the final kick which secured the coveted honour for the South being administered by R.S.F.

The following February, Walker was again England's scorer in a 1–1 draw;[12] the match report included a reference to the Combination Game style of football: It seemed as if the [Scottish] defence would prove more than equal to the attack, until a well-executed run-down by C.W.Alcock, W.C. Butler and R.S.F.

Walker, acting in concert, enabled the last-named of the trio to equalise the score by the accomplishment of a well-merited goal for England.

[1] In 1874, he was transferred to Perak, but was then moved first to Hong Kong and then to Singapore where, in 1878, he was aide-de-camp to Sir William Robinson, Governor of the Straits Settlements.

[1][22] In 1879, Walker took command of the Perak Armed Police[23] from Major Paul Swinburne[22] turning it into a quasi-military force based almost entirely on Sikh and Pathan recruits.

Others performed guard duties at the residency in Taiping and maintained law and order in the State of Perak, including a section of cavalry troopers.

In "a show of force", Walker and the Perak Sikhs, responding to reports received from the acting magistrate, visited the mining areas at Kinta, inspecting the kongsis in which the secret society members lived.

Walker telegraphed his headquarters in Taiping to request reinforcements and within two months his forces in Ipoh had been strengthened by about 100 men.

Several new police stations were opened with financial assistance from the mine-owners and increased patrols on the Tambun road helped reduce the number of robberies and assaults on the highway, although Walker complained that "it exhausts the resources of any force and the constitution of the men.

"[29] Referring to the rapid growth of crime in northern Kinta, Walker remarked:No wonder that the crime has increased, as increase it must, with a mining population of Chinese, a race that knows no repose, that settles only for the moment where money is to be made with the greatest ease, that would rob their best friends if they themselves should have lost their savings at the gaming table.Crime with such a population as this means progress, and although a check has been given to it by raising the Force to its utmost capacity, at the sacrifice of other parts of the state, strengthening the detective branch, and paying judiciously for information, crime must arise, and as long as a fair number of discoveries are made of crimes most difficult to detect in a country where escape is so easy, and a criminal can with comparative ease conceal himself, it is all that can be expected.

[29] To assist in the fight against crime, Walker recommended that the headquarters of the Kinta police should be moved from Batu Gajah to Ipoh.

In his "Personalities of Old Malaya", written in 1930, Cyril Baxendale relates an incident involving Walker and Chief Inspector John Symes.

A few moments of hesitation and then Symes sprang to attention and as he raised his hand in formal salute: "Damn the British Resident, Sir.

[37] Walker also helped introduce football to the state; he founded a team in Taiping and donated the Ship Challenge Trophy.

[1] While in Hong Kong in the 1870s, as well as playing cricket he was the stroke in the regimental boat which defeated a team from the United States Ship Kearsarge.

[1] Walker was an avid collector of Malay weapons, brasses, and silver and had what was reputed to be "the finest collection of old china in the peninsula".

[42] In 1880, Walker conceived the idea of transforming a disused mining site in Taiping into a garden for the benefit of the townspeople.

The land was donated to the town by its owner, Mr. Chung Thye Phin, a wealthy tin miner and rubber planter.

After a formal procession from the jetty at Penang Harbour, accompanied by a large body of Sikhs, Walker laid the foundation stone of the new building with a trowel made of solid silver.

Colonel Richard Bolton, of the Royal Horse Guards, and eldest daughter of the late Thomas James Ireland, M.P., of Ousden Hall, Suffolk.

[50] On his retirement a bronze statue[51] was erected in his honour in Taiping; it stands today outside the Perak Museum;[42][52] the sculptor was Charles Leonard Hartwell R.A.

[2] According to the inscription on the sculpture:This statue was erected by public subscription of the Sultans of Perak and Johore and many personal friends of the principal Chinese Towkays and of the officers and men of the Regiment of Malay State Guides to be a memorial of ROBERT SANDILANDS FROWD WALKERCompanion of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George who retired in 1910 after 31 years in Perak and the Federated Malay States.For his hospitality and encouragement of all branches of sport and his success in raising the Regiment of Malay States Guides to the highest excellence this statue will serve as a continued remembrance.

[49] According to Baxendale:he tempered his strict regard for discipline with his usual kindness, and the encouragement he gave to the prisoners to pursue their various trades won their respect and affection.