We've tried to ensure the information displayed here is as accurate as possible. Should there be any inaccuracies, we would be grateful if you could let us know at info@ipohworld.org . All images and content are copyright.
(Please click on the thumbnail for a bigger image.)
Colonel R S F Walker CMG
Lieutenant Colonel Robert Sandilands Frowd Walker CMG (also known as R. S. F. Walker) was born in the son of John and Camilla Walker. He was educated at Brentwood School, Essex before taking up a military career at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He was a keen all-round sportsman.
He started his active military career in 1870, aged twenty, when he joined the 28th (North Gloucestershire) Regiment of Foot which took him to Gibraltar and Malta.
In 1874, he was officially transferred to Perak, but initially lent first to Hong Kong and then to Singapore. Early in 1879, he entered the service of the Federated Malay States as Acting Commissioner of the Perak Armed Police, and was also the Acting Assistant Resident. By 1884, he was Commandant of the First Battalion Perak Sikhs with the local rank of Major.
Five years later, he was granted the honorary rank of Lieutenant-Colonel as Commandant of the First Battalion/Perak Police Force. In 1896 he continued in the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel while employed as Commandant of the Malay States Guides.
In addition to his military and policing duties, he acted as Assistant Resident in Perak (1882), Secretary to the Government of Perak (1889), acting British Resident in Selangor (1899) and acting British Resident in Perak (1900).
Walker retired in 1910 on the grounds of ill-health, in a private letter he said:
“Thirty-two and a half years since I landed in Singapore and knocked the ball about on the old cricket ground. A longish spell that has passed very quickly, at times very happily. I cannot help feeling I am leaving a splendid little Corps behind me, and only wish it was a Brigade.”
He passed away of a heart attack on 16 May 1917.
There is a bronze statue erected in his honour which we believe still stands today outside the Perak Museum in Taiping.