Nelson Street
The Walker Brothers: Robert and Wilson Walker were from a seafaring family and followed in their father and grandfather’s footsteps and became master mariners. Their grandfather Wilson Walker had been washed overboard in the Atlantic in the early 19th century before the birth of their father William.
Robert Walker (1851-1941) received his captain’s license from the Japanese government in 1876 and went on to become one of the most respected master mariners working on the Japan Sea. Robert Walker returned to his native Maryport where not long after his Japanese wife, Sato Walker died on May 22, 1894, at the young age of 36 and is buried in Maryport Cemetery. His brother, Wilson Walker (-1914) also had an established career as a master-mariner and was hired by Iwasaki Yataro the founder of what today is Mitsubishi Corporation to serve as chief officer on a ship called the Tsuru purchased by Iwasaki's fledgling company. It was this event that initiated Wilson's friendship with the Iwasaki family and marked the beginning of the Walker brothers' deep involvement in the Japanese shipping industry. Later the career of Wilson Walker veered away from the ocean because of beer (not the consumption but the production thereof). Still a resident of Yokohama, Wilson became intimately involved in the establishment of the Japan Brewery Company Limited, predecessor of present-day Kirin Beer Company Limited.
