Ted Walker

Above is an image of a farmhouse

Castlebar, County May, Ireland

Ted Eric Walker(13 May 1907 - 20 August 1989) was an Irish agricultural worker, on Doyle's Farm, which was where he was brought up on, he worked there from 1920, aged thirteen, then retired in 1986, at seventy-nine,three before his death.

## Early life

Walker was born in a room at St. Maggie's Convent, in Galway, to an English mother named Joyce Harris, who was only sixteen years old, his father is unknown. Immediately after birth, Walker was taken away from his birth mother, by the nuns at the convent and was never seen by his mother again, he was raised on Doyle's Farm, by an Australian man called Hunter Walker and his wife Meghan, who fostered Walker and acted as his parents. Growing up, Walker was close to the three biological children of Hunter and Meghan, called Nora, Sarah and Christopher and Meghan's nephew Royston, who she and Hunter also fostered, after his parents were killed in a boat accident. Along with his foster siblings, Walker was educated at the farm house, by a nun called Sister Garrett, who taught him how to read and write. At the age of thirteen, Walker's foster father Hunter gave him a job, working on the farm, feeding the animals, which is what he did until 1939, when he was given the farm, by Hunter.

## Career

Up until 1939, Walker did odd jobs around Doyle's Farm, such as feeding the animals, mowing the lawn, planting seeds and later got to drive the tractor around the farm area, however things began to change, when Walker's father fell ill and died from Alzheimer's disease, though before he passed away, on his deathbed, Hunter gave Walker the deeds to Doyle's Farm, that in 1952, after the death of Meghan Walker, he changed the name to Walker's Farm. Walker lived in the farmhouse, with his then wife Nancy and their four children, until 1976, when Walker divorced his wife, he then remarried two years later and began living there alone with his second wife Margaret. After Walker's death in 1989, he left the deeds to his son Michael, who moved into the farmhouse with his wife and their children.

## Marriage and children

Walker married twice, his first wife was Nancy Quinn, who he met at twelve years old, her family also owned a farm called Quinn's Farm, that was always competing against Doyle's Farm. Quinn's father Jeremiah Quinn and Walker's foster father Hunter never got along and made their families enemies, which caused a war between the two, though this soon ended when Walker and Quinn both revealed that they had fallen in love and were getting married, which both Hunter and Jeremiah never liked the thought of, as they would now be in-laws, though neither stood in the way of their children's happiness. Hunter and Quinn married in 1928 and two years later, had their first child, who they named Declan Walker, they went on to have three more children named Sadie Walker(b. 1936), Michael Walker(b. 1942) and Eileen Walker(b. 1946). Walker and Quinn remained married for thirty years, before Quinn filed for divorce in 1976, after accusing Walker of being unfaithful, once their divorce was finalised, Quinn made it known around the area of Castlebar, that she and Walker were no longer married, something that Walker's second wife Margaret Smith heard. Walker and Smith married in 1978 and lived together of Walker's Farm, they remained married until 1989, when Walker died.

## Death

In 1986, whilst working on Walker's Farm, Walker collapsed and was found by his wife, who looked out of the window and saw Walker lying on the grass, with the lawnmower next to his head, she rushed out to see him and tried to get his attention by calling his name, though he was unconscious, which led to her to ring for an ambulance, on their telephone. Walker was taken to the nearest hospital, where he was told by one of the doctors, that he was "too old to continue working on the farm", which he denied and said that he continue on working on it until his death, but soon changed his mind, after seeing the worried expression on his wife's face, which he then added "maybe I should give up?", which his wife then felt some relief. Though Walker remained supervising the farm, when the labourers were working on it, some of which got aggravated when Walker kept telling them how to do the job "properly". In 1988, Walker's health did get slightly better, which prompted Walker to return to working on the farm, only doing small jobs initially, but later carrying heavy loads, which caused him to suffer from exhaustion, which he then had a panic attack and passed out, falling to the ground, this time being found by one of his workers, who rushed inside the farmhouse and got his wife, who then took him in doors, after he regained consciousness. Though when sitting alone on the sofa, in the living room, whilst his wife was in the kitchen, preparing dinner, Walker had a minor heart attack, that brought on a stroke and was later found by his wife, who walked into the living room, to ask him a question about dinner, she saw that half of his face had collapsed and that he was yet again, unconscious, but later came around. Walker was taken to the hospital, in the back of an ambulance, that on the way to, Walker suffered from a major heart attack and blacked out, waking up in a hospital bed, which his wife was sitting next to, on an armchair. One of the nurses told Walker's wife, that if he kept up his work, he would eventually die from exhaustion, leading to her to leave Walker at the hospital, which she thought was best for his health, as the doctors could keep an eye on him. The next day however, Walker surprised his family, when he knocked at his front door and told his wife and son Michael that he was feeling fine and that the doctors let him leave, which neither of them believed. In 1989, things went from bad to worse, when Walker once again returned to work and suffered from three sudden heart attacks, all in under two hours, caused by chest pains, that increased rapidly. Walker never recovered from those heart attacks and died on his farm.

Walker was buried at the nearby St. Matthew's Cemetery, where his wife was also buried at, ten years later.