William Walker

William Holden Walker (16 December 1835 – 14 June 1886) was an English-born Australian cricketer. As captain of the Tasmanian cricket team, Walker was one of Tasmania's leading cricketers of his time. Known for his all-round capabilities, he was a right-handed batsman and an underarm bowler, as well as keeping wicket. Walker was named in the Cricket Tasmania Premier League's "Team of the Decade" for the decade spanning 1866–67 to 1875–76.

Early life and professional career Walker was born in Islington, London in 1835, the son of Holden and Mary Waldegrave Walker. During his early years in England, when Walker started playing cricket, his team came to be known as the Walker team. From England, Walker moved to Tasmania in 1859, Subsequently, he was employed with solicitors Messrs Gill and Ball, Messrs Dobson and Mitchell and later became an accountant at Messrs Elliston and Featherstone. In his profile of Walker for ESPNcricinfo, the sports writer Thomas Rose said: "He impressed in representative games and was often the shining light of a rather dismal Tasmanian side..."

Walker's first-class cricketing career spanned six years, from 1872 to 1878. He played two first-class cricket matches as captain of the Tasmanian cricket team during that period, scoring 73 runs and taking five wickets. The Mercury wrote in its obituary on 15 June 1886: "Cricketers will learn with regret of the death, after a very short illness, of Mr. William Holden Walker, one of the oldest votaries of this thoroughly English game in the colony... Mr. Walker, who previous to his departure from England, was a member of the well-known Walker Team, brought cricketing into great prominence in Launceston... His efforts in the cause of cricket are so well known that they require no comment, but his sudden demise will cause a pang among the many friends who admired his genial and gentlemanly temperament."

Around a month after his death, on 13 July 1886, an amount of £590 from his estate was issued over as probate.