[taken from Chapter 7 Manx Worthies, A.W.Moore, 1901]

BALDWIN WAKE WALKER, K.C.B., Baronet (b. 1802, d. 1876),

son of John Walker of Whitehaven and Frances. daughter of Captain Drury Wake, of the 17th Dragoons. and niece of Sir William Wake, eighth baronet, was born at Port-e-Vullen, near Ramsey. He entered the Navy in 1812, was made a lieutenant in 1820, and served for two years on the Jamaica station, then for three years on the coast of South America and the west coast of Africa. In 1827, he went out to the Mediterranean in the "Rattlesnake, " and, in 1828, was first lieutenant of the " Etna " at the reduction of Kastro, in the Morea. For this service he received the crosses of the Legion of Honour and of the Redeemer of Greece. He continued in the Mediterranean, serving in the "Asia," "Britannia," and " Barham, " and was made commander in 1834. In that rank he served in the "Vanguard," in the Mediterranean, between 1836 and 1838. By permission of the Admiralty he then accepted a command in the Turkish Navy, in which he was known as Walker Bey, and afterwards as Yavir Pasha. In July, 1840, the Capitan Pasha took the fleet to Alexandria and delivered it over to Mehemet Ali, who then refused to part with it Walker summoned the Turkish Captains to a council of war, and proposed to them to land in the night, surround the palace, carry off Mehemet Ali, and send him to Constantinople. This would probably have been done had not Mehemet Ali in the meantime consented to let the ships go. Walker afterwards commanded the Turkish squadron at the reduction of Acre, for which service he was nominated a K.C.B. in 1841 ; he also received from the allied sovereigns the second class of the Iron Crown of Austria, of St. Anne of Russia, and of the Red Eagle of Prussia. Returning to England in 1845, he commanded the " Queen," as flag-captain to Sir John West at Devonport, and, in 1846-7, the " Constance " frigate in the Pacific. From 1848 to 1860, he was surveyor of the Navy; he was made a baronet in 1856, a rear-admiral in 1858, and in 1861 he was appointed commander- in-chief at the Cape of Good Hope, whence he returned home in 1864. He became vice-admiral in 1865, and admiral in 1870. He died at his residence at Diss in Norfolk.

(From The Dictionary of National Biography.)