John Barnhill Walker (30 October 1883 — 21 November 1953) was a
Scottish first-class
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...
er and businessman. His brother,
William
William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...
, was also a first-class cricketer.
Biography
Walker was born at
Greenock in October 1883 and was educated at the Glasgow Collegiate. He played
club cricket
Club cricket is a mainly amateur, but still formal, form of the sport of cricket, usually involving teams playing in competitions at weekends or in the evening. There is a great deal of variation in game format although the Laws of Cricket are obs ...
with success for Greenock, scoring 169 runs against the
West of Scotland in 1912, in addition to captaining the club.
Walker played two
first-class cricket
First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...
matches for Scotland in 1912, against the touring
South Africans
The population of South Africa is about 58.8 million people of diverse origins, cultures, languages, and religions. The South African National Census of 2022 was the most recent census held; the next will be in 2032.
In 2011, Statistics South ...
at
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
, and
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
at
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...
. He scored 45 runs in his two matches, with a highest score of 34.
Walker served in the Renfrewshire Volunteer Regiment during the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, being commissioned as a temporary
second lieutenant in April 1918.
Walker later became a senior director at
John Walker and Co. (Sugar Refiners) and was a direct descendant of its founder,
Johnnie Walker
Johnnie Walker is a brand of Scotch whisky now owned by Diageo that originated in the Scottish burgh of Kilmarnock in East Ayrshire. The brand was first established by grocer John Walker. It is the most widely distributed brand of blended Sc ...
. Besides his cricketing and business interests, he also played
rugby football
Rugby football is the collective name for the team sports of rugby union and rugby league.
Canadian football and, to a lesser extent, American football were once considered forms of rugby football, but are seldom now referred to as such. The ...
for
Greenock Wanderers RFC
Greenock Wanderers R.F.C. is a rugby union club based in Greenock, Scotland. The men's 1st XV side currently compete in the ; the women's side currently compete in the .
History
Greenock Wanderers Rugby Football Club is one of the oldest clubs ...
. He died in November 1953 at
Bearsden, Dunbartonshire.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, John
1883 births
1953 deaths
Cricketers from Greenock
Scottish cricketers
Scottish rugby union players
Greenock Wanderers RFC players
Volunteer Force officers
British Army personnel of World War I
Scottish businesspeople
Whisky distillers