☞The Man Who Saved Winchester Cathedral…

☞The Man Who Saved Winchester Cathedral…

☞Today in History -- On today’s date 153 years ago, Thursday, October 21, 1869, William Walker (1869-1918), noted Victorian-Era English diver who became famous for shoring up the southern & eastern sides of Winchester Cathedral, was born at Newington, Surrey, England.

 Born William Robert Bellenie, around the turn of the 20th Century he adopted the name William Bellenie-Walker, eventually dropping the Bellenie part to be known as Walker.

☞In 1887, Walker began diver training at Portsmouth Dockyard. He worked through the roles of diver's attendant & diver’s signal man, passing his medical exam & deep-water test to qualify as a deep-water diver in 1892.

☞In his time, William Walker was the most experienced diver of Siebe Gorman Ltd. Between 1906 & 1911, working in water up to a depth of six metres (20 feet), he shored up Winchester Cathedral, using more than 25,800 bags of concrete, 114,900 concrete blocks, & 900,000 bricks.

☞Before his work, Winchester Cathedral had been in imminent danger of collapse as it sank slowly into the ground, which consisted of waterlogged peat. To enable bricklayers to build supporting walls, the groundwater level had to be lowered. Normally, the removal of the groundwater would have caused the collapse of the building. So, to give temporary support to the foundation walls, some 235 pits were dug along the southern & eastern sides of the building, each about six metres deep. Walker went down & shored up the walls by putting concrete underneath them. He worked six hours a day -- in complete darkness, because the sediment suspended in the water was impenetrable to light.

☞After Walker finished his work, the groundwater was pumped out & the concrete he had placed bore the foundation walls. Conventional bricklayers then were able to do their work in the usual way to restore the damaged walls.

☞During the latter part of his time working at Winchester, Walker cycled home, 70 miles to South Norwood, at weekends returning by train on Monday.

☞To celebrate the completion of the work, a Thanksgiving service, led by the Archbishop of Canterbury, was held on July 15,1912. At this, Walker was presented with a silver rose bowl by King George V. Newspaper reports at the time remarked that this was the second time that Walker had met George V, the first being when the king was a naval cadet & Walker was his diving instructor. Later, Walker was honored by being appointed a Member of the Royal Victorian Order (MVO).

☞In response to questions about his work on Winchester Cathedral, William said “It was not difficult. It was straightforward work, but had to be carefully done.” He went on to say that Mr. Jackson had told him that he was very pleased with the work & that he had done what no other man had done -- that he had laid the foundation of a whole cathedral. Walker said “I am proud of the honor.”

☞Walker died during the Spanish Influenza Epidemic of 1918 & is buried in Beckenham Crematorium & Cemetery in London. His grave bears the inscription: “The diver who with his own hands saved Winchester Cathedral.”

☞The circa-1911 photograph depicts William Walker in his diving suit at Winchester Cathedral.