David Walker

1911-1992

David Harry Walker was born near Dundee, Scotland 9 February 1911. He received his early education in England, at Shrewsbury, later enrolling at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. After graduation in 1931, he was commissioned in The Black Watch, serving with the foreign battalion in India and Sudan (1932-1938) and in Canada as aide-de-camp to Governor-General Lord Tweedsmuir, the novelist John Buchan (1938-1939). On 27 July 1939 he married Willa Magee of Montreal. In September 1939, amid threat of war, Walker returned to England, where he trained recruits. The next year he was posted to France with The Black Watch 51st Highland Division. Captured by the Germans at St. Valery in June 1940, he spent nearly five years in prisoner of war camps, escaping three times. On each occasion he reached the outside, only to be recaptured. While interned at Colditz Castle, he began to write poetry. Freed by American troops in 1945, he was later awarded the M.B.E. Following retirement from the British army, he emigrated to St. Andrews, N.B. in 1948. Walker published approximately 100 short stories and 20 books. His novels The Pillar, about a prisoner of war camp, and Digby, a Scottish highlands story, won the Governor General's award for fiction for 1952 and 1953 respectively. Several of his books, including Geordie, made into a motion picture, were set in his native Scotland, while Mallabec and Pirate Rock were set in his adopted home, New Brunswick. Where the High Winds Blow, written following a dogsled adventure in the Canadian North, is considered his most popular Canadian novel. His last book, Lean, Wind, Lean, an autobiography, was published in 1984. Between 1965 and 1991 Walker sat as a commissioner of the Roosevelt Campobello International Park Commission, serving as chair from 1970 to 1972.  In 1955 the University of New Brunswick awarded him an honorary doctor of letters, and in 1987 he was made a Member of the Order of Canada. Walker died at St. Andrews on 5 March 1992, at age 81. In 1997 the Walker family established the David H. Walker Prize in Creative Writing at UNB.

Predominant New Brunswick Residences:

Saint Andrews

Archival Material

• David H. Walker fonds
  ⌄
  Location

  University of New Brunswick

  Website/Catalogue Record

  View Archival Record

  Retrieval Number

  MG L 35

  Date Range of Material

  1931-1994, predominant 1948-1994

  Extent

  402 cm textual records
  10 artifacts
  131 photographs ; b&w ; 20 x 25 cm or smaller

  Scope and Content Note

  This fonds documents David H. Walker's 45-year literary career as author of 19 novels, over 100 short stories, and several works of non-fiction -- most notably, an autobiography, Lean, Wind, Lean. It also reflects his military career in The Black Watch (1931-1947), including his internment in German prison camps during the Second World War. The fonds also includes material relating to Walker's family life, his personal relationships, his friendship with Lord Wavell, and his travels in Canada and abroad as well as several awards and honours. It includes incoming and outgoing correspondence, notes, draft manuscripts, draft scripts, agreements with publishers and film makers, published short stories, reviews, royalty statements, and publicity material as well as copies of speeches, travel and family photographs, biographical material, mementos, and awards. Artifacts include: commission in The Black Watch, Governor-General's awards for fiction (1952 and 1953), and warrants making Walker a Member of the Order of the British Empire and a Member of the Order of Canada.