HUGH Walker did not quite make his century. When he died on June 26, 2001, he was just three months short of completing 100 years of living.
He was a Glasgow man, born in Partick. Educated at Hillhead High School, he served his time with Alexander Stephen & Sons Ltd, shipbuilders, finally becoming a naval architect.
Hugh was a man of many talents. He knew his rugby and was conversant with Latin and the classics. He also studied at the Glasgow School of Art and knew his subject well, but although he produced some excellent works he did not exhibit any of them; his wide-ranging interests did not permit too specialised an outlook on life. Music also gave him great pleasure, especially Beethoven, Mozart, and Haydn, and he delighted in the opportunity to spend a season at Glyndebourne.
Throughout the years of the Second World War Hugh was with the Admiralty, mostly looking after the Small Vessels Pool under Admiral Preston, and doing much valuable work for his country. He had many a tale to tell of his experiences; of being bombed out of his flat in London; and of being falsely arrested as a spy wearing the uniform of an officer in His Majesty's Senior Service; an incident which thereafter left him somewhat cautious when encountering our tribal cousins in Southern Britain. Hugh left his mark wherever he went, and for those of us who knew him,
particularly his naval colleagues of that period who are still aboard our earthly vessel, the name Hugh Walker will conjure up memories of a man of conscience, integrity, reliability, and openness; a man of an honest and friendly disposition and someone to mark.
Later, when hostilities were over, he became a founder member of the RNVR Club which had its premises on Clydeside in the old Clipper, the SS Carrick, formerly the City of Adelaide - now the subject of much debate concerning its preservation and restoration, and well known to Glasgow people. In his varied working life he also became involved in advancing the development of expanded rubber, and in particular where insulation was involved, as in refrigeration, and wherever controlled heat transfer was essential.
Of a deeply patriotic disposition, he deplored the covert policies aimed at diminishing our national sovereignty in a European Union and was one of the founder members of the Scottish Anti Common-Market Council, set up in the early 1970s as a pressure group opposing these policies.
In a long association with our wonderful friend there was never a subject he would not hear and examine with consummate interest. For him, in the words of one of his old and valued friends, the late David Maxwell, QC: ''Life is one and indivisible.'' He lived believing that. Now he leaves behind his married daughter, Nan, whom he cared for very much, her family and other near kinsmen here and abroad. These, with many friends share the grief of the bereaved, parting for a time from one they learned to love.
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