Port Dover
Native
Led Colorful Life
The colorful life of P. D. Walker,
Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, aged 80 years, a veteran fur trader who
"rode the range" in the days of a fenceless west, trekked over
the old Pembina trail to the Yukon in 1898 in search of gold, and donned
the N.W.M.P. uniform in the 1885 Riel Rebellion, ended in hospital in
Prince Albert, early in December.
Mr. Walker was well-known in the
fur trade of Western Canada and the north, having been actively associated
with it since he joined the Revillon Freres Trading Company at Edmonton 45
years ago. Still extremely active despite his age, he was acting as fur
buyer for the Hudson's Bay Company at the time of his death. He died a few
hours after being admitted to hospital Friday afternoon.
For a number or years Mr. Walker
was post manager for Reveillon Freres at Athabaska Landing and in 1917
went to Prince Albert as district manager of the company. When the firm
was taken over by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1936 he continued with the
latter company as fur buyer, a field in which he had established a
reputation as an expert.
Born near Port Dover, Ont., in
18[65], the son of Dr. N. O. Walker, a widely-known physician in his day,
and Mrs. Walker, he went west to MacLeod, Alberta, then Northwest
Territories, in 1884. For a number of years he rode the range both in
Western Canada and Montana. During the Riel Rebellion of 1885 he joined
the Mounted Police as a special constable.
During the 1898 gold rush Mr.
Walker joined a party of prospectors going to the Yukon via the old
Pembina route north from Edmonton. Suffering great hardships and running
out of supplies the party was unable to reach its goal and returned to
Edmonton some months after starting out. Keenly interested in politics, he
was a staunch Conservative throughout his life.
Surviving are one son, Col. D. E.
Walker, D.S.O., Saskatoon, who commanded the Saskatoon Light Infantry in
the Second Great War; two daughters, Mrs. F. L. Dupre and Mrs. W. L.
Davis, both of Prince Albert; one sister, Mrs. Robert Tyrrell, Toronto;
one brother, George Wallace, Idaho and six grandsons. This wife
predeceased him in 1926. The late Mrs. Joseph Smythe, Lynn Valley, was a
sister. J. B. Tyrrell, the well-known Toronto mining engineer and explorer
is a cousin.
The funeral service was held in
St. Alban's Cathedral, Prince Albert.
