William Walker (diver)
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William Walker MVO (1869-1918) was an English diver famous for shoring up the southern and eastern sides of Winchester Cathedral.
He was born in 1869 in Newington, Surrey and named William Robert Bellenie. Around 1900 he adopted the name William Bellenie-Walker, eventually dropping the Bellenie part to be known as Walker.
In 1887 William started diver training at Portsmouth Dockyard. He worked through the roles of diver’s attendant and diver’s signal man, passed his medical exam and deep water test to qualify as a deep water diver in 1892 [1].
In his time, William Walker was the most experienced diver of Siebe Gorman Ltd. Working in water up to a depth of 6 m between 1906-1911, he shored up the Cathedral using more than 25,000 bags of concrete, 115,000 concrete blocks and 900,000 bricks.
Prior to his work, the Cathedral had been in imminent danger of collapse as it slowly sank into the ground, which consisted of peat. To enable bricklayers to build supporting walls, the groundwater level had to be lowered. Normally, the removal of the groundwater would have caused the collapse of the building. So to give temporary support to the foundation walls some 235 pits were dug out along the southern and eastern sides of the building, each about six metres deep. Walker went down and shored up the walls by putting concrete underneath them. He had to work six hours a day in complete darkness as the water contained floating sediment and was impenetrable to light.
After Walker finished his work, the groundwater was pumped out and the concrete Walker had put into place bore the foundation walls. Then conventional bricklayers were able to do their work the usual way and restore the damaged walls.
During his time working at Winchester, William Walker cycled home 150 miles to Croydon and back, each weekend to see his family [2]. He married twice, his first wife died, before he started work at Winchester. He married his second wife, sister of his first, in 1907 and had several children during the time he worked at Winchester.
To celebrate the completion of the work a Thanksgiving service, led by the Archbishop of Canterbury, was held on July 15th 1912. At this Walker was presented with a silver rose bowl by George V. Newspaper reports at the time remarked that this was the second time Walker had met King George V, the first being when the King was a naval cadet and Walker was the King’s diving instructor [3]
Later Walker was honoured with the title Member of the Royal Victorian Order.
An interview that Walker gave to the Hampshire Observer in 1911 [4] gives an interesting insight into his work. In it Walker reveals that unlike some other divers he had never worked on any treasure dives. His work included: • Rescue work in December 1896 at the River Level Colliery near Aberent Wales, when the pit was flooded and six men and boys drowned; • Work on the building of the Blackwall Tunnel between 1891 and 1897; • Being foreman in charge of works on the construction of the new naval docks in Gibraltar; • Work on the construction of the jetty for the Royal Victoria Dock Granary in 1905; • Emergency work, which called him away from Winchester, on the wreck of the SS Dordone in Newport. • Work with Sir Leonard Hill developing linear decompression tables.
The interview says:
“In cold water diving he [William] explained what a man has to contend with is the pressure. At Gibraltar he says ‘two of my men died through pressure of water.” (Hampshire Observer, 2nd September 1911)
And in response to questions about his work on Winchester William says: “It was not difficult. It was straightforward work, but had to be carefully done”. He went on to say that Mr Jackson had told him that he was very pleased with the work and that he had done what no other man had done- that was he had laid the foundations of a whole cathedral, Walker said ”I am proud of the honour” (Hampshire Observer, 2nd September 1911)
William Walker died during the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918.
[edit] References
- ^ "Hampshire Observer", Hampshire Observer, 1911-09-02.
- ^ Duggan, Margaret. "Diver who saved a cathedral", Church Times, Church House Publishing, 2006-10-03.
- ^ Duggan, Margaret. "Diver who saved a cathedral", Church Times, Church House Publishing, 2006-10-03.
- ^ "Hampshire Observer", Hampshire Observer, 1911-09-02.
