Andrew Walker’s life story, delivered by the presiding minister at his funeral, May 10, 2012

It was clear when I met Andrew last December, and it is even clearer to me now having spent time again talking with the family, reading letters and emails from family, friends and colleagues that Andrew, deeply loved and respected by so many, was a very special man, and it is a real honour for me to be taking part in this ceremony today.

Andrew Walker was born on 19th May 1926. He was the second youngest of 7 children, having 5 sisters Janet, Isobel, Liz, Lorraine, Deirdre and a brother, Archie. It was an interesting and complex family. His father worked as a doctor in Africa and was often absent; his mother moved some of the children to France when Andrew was 12. The family came from Scotland, there were rumours of belonging to the Glaswegian elite until someone gambled away the family fortune. In spite of the family’s strong Scottish roots, Andrew was born in Looe, Cornwall. He told stories of walking to school across the moors with ponies in the mist and of family evenings with music provided by his mother on the piano.

Andrew was 14 when his dad was called out during an air raid and didn’t return. The children were told their father had had a heart attack. Andrew was very happy that he had been able to spend some time with his father before his death, as he had accompanied him several times during his work.

Andrew joined the Royal Lincolnshire regiment of the army when he was still a youngster. Still just 18, as a sergeant in the second world war, Andrew was among those troops who helped liberate Enschede in Holland on 1 April 1945. 50 years later, in 1995 there would be more cause for great pride, joy and celebration- Andrew and Avril rented a flat in Amsterdam because their grand daughter, Luca, was due to be born, and at the same time they were personally invited to a celebration to mark the 50th anniversary in Enschede of the liberation of Holland.

After returning from Palestine in 1948, Andrew started his career as a journalist at the East Anglian Daily Times in Ipswich. Following this he moved to a technical journal on Fleet St, London, and it was during this time that he and Avril met in the Chorus of an amateur production of a now forgotten musical comedy, the Quaker Girl, which was put on in Hornsey Town Hall, north London. The couple were asked by the producer to do some sort of a dance together. On their first date, Andrew took Avril to a Dinner dance at a place called Maxim’s in the West End.

Andrew began working for the BBC in the mid- 1950s and continued with them for nearly 35 years, latterly as commonwealth and defence correspondent for the World Service at Bush House. He is also a published author, his most notable book being an acclaimed history of the World Service which came out in 1992. He is fondly remembered by his colleagues from this time.

Andrew and Avril were married in a lovely 16th Century Church in Finchley in 1956.

Alistair was born in 1958, in Barnet, followed by Paddy in 1959.

From Barnet, the family moved to Beirut for more than a year, where Andrew was foreign correspondent for the BBC. When they returned they lived in Salfords in a tiny cottage and then moved to Merstham, Surrey, where first Christopher in 1963, and then Oonagh, in 1965, were born at home. Alistair’s earliest memory of Andrew was when Alistair was 4years old, helping his dad to push his Hillman Minx up the steep slope to the station in that grim Winter of '62/63.

There was a move to Crawley, and finally to Balcombe, where the family lived for 18 years.

Andrew and Avril were devoted to their family, their children and later their grandchildren- Reinier and Luca- were the most important thing in the world to them both, and they were always so proud of them all. In the family home in Balcombe the kids had a room of their own- the games room- in which they could do pretty much as they liked- including writing and drawing and painting on the walls. This was also the room in which Andrew kept his homemade wine collection.

Fond childood memories abound, Andrew travelled to Africa a lot in his role as Commonwealth Correspondent for the BBC. He often brought back exotic instruments from these far away places; small drums, gourd based single string instruments, bell trees and once, a thumb piano. These fascinated Alistair, as he says, not for their provenance unfortunately, but because you could bang them or make satisfyingly weird noises with them. Alistair still has most of them dotted around his flat in Plymouth; and has even used them in his own recordings.

Alistair says Andrew also helped in a more direct way to wrench out of himself the musical impulses he felt; when Alistair was about 15, it was Andrew who bought him his first guitar. This was a nylon stringed 3⁄4 sized classical guitar. Alistair miked it up through a reel to reel tape recorder and set about terrorising the family and neighbours with its screeches and moans. It was then decided that he'd better have a 'proper' electric guitar, so Andrew helped him to buy a Gibson 335 lookalike from Woolies. That guitar set him on a course that he still follows today, was used in several bands and now has a second wind in Holland, where it is considered a machine of great antiquity and exoticism...

More memories include the joy of Family holidays in Cornwall (mackerel fishing and fish-and-chips) and Brittany (rock pools and crepes), camping,- of which more a little later- fishing trips, magical picnics on the beach, and Sunday afternoons spent playing games in the games room and going for long walks with the dog – children running wild, playing tag, climbing trees, Paddy inevitably having to be rescued by her Dad for climbing too high.

Paddy also remembers picking Andrew/dad up at the airport when he returned home from exotic and exciting trips abroad, finding the stories and anecdotes incredibly romantic and secretly imagining him involved in international espionage. Not believing him when he said it was all mundane, hanging around waiting for someone important to say something. Especially not when they heard that he had to leave certain countries in a hurry.

Andrew was a champion organiser of games for the children’s parties, and Oonagh and Christopher remember:
Great birthday parties in the back garden - Egg and spoon races on a space hopper. Mini assault courses. It’s a knockout style racing whilst carrying books between a knife and fork.

To return to the camping- Oonagh remembers one particular trip, in the middle of the night she woke up screaming as something small and wriggley was attacking her eardrum! Andrew rushed in saying “I’ll get it out” whilst brandishing a fork in one hand and a torch in the other! Luckily the offending woodlouse eventually came out on its own.
When Andrew retired from the BBC in 1985 Andrew and Avril moved to Brighton, a place they both loved.

All of Andrew’s family speak of the dignity and courage with which Andrew dealt with his stroke shortly after Avril died (and during the short period he spent in hospital just a couple of weeks ago).

Paddy says Andrew remains ‘My touchstone for all things related to parenting - and life altogether!’

Oonagh speaks for the whole family when she says:
‘I was very lucky I had a wonderful childhood due to my fantastic parents.’

Music: Ave Verum Corpus, by Mozart
This piece of music was a favourite of Andrew’s which he requested to be played at his funeral.

The Guardian has an obituary for Andrew Walker here.

"Andrew Walker, who has died aged 85, used to joke that if he wanted to feel like a famous journalist, he was more likely to feel it in the Commonwealth than in London. For many years he was the Commonwealth correspondent of the BBC World Service, and for a time chairman of the Commonwealth Journalists Association. He also trained journalists in their own countries, was the author of two books on the Commonwealth, and later wrote a book celebrating the BBC World Service and its then 60-year history.........."