Robert Bruce Napoleon Walker

Robert Bruce Napoleon Walker PhD, FRGS
File:Walker, Robert Bruce Napoleon.jpg
Born	1832
Died	1901
Residence	10 Milborne Grove West, Brompton the Gaboon Gaboon, West Africa c/o Mr Blissett, 38 South Castle Street, Liverpool [1866] c/o E.C. Morley, 3 King's Bench Walk, Temple, EC [1869] Gaboon, West Africa; c/o E.C. Morley, 59 Mincing Lane, EC [1872] Gaboon, West Africa; c/o E.C. Morley, 13 Palmerston Buildings, Bishopsgate [1875] Gaboon, West Africa, 20 Ferndale-road, Stockwell [1879]
Society Membership membership ASL, LAS, AI ordinary fellow 1864.11.01 ASL, AI local secretary 1866.02.01 ASL Foundation Fellow left 1881.04 last listed elected_AI 1864 elected_LAS 1873.06.19 elected_ASL 1864.11.01 societies Royal Geographical Society Zoological Society

Notes

House Notes

Cor. Mem. ZS
proposed 1866.01.16 as local secretary
LAS*as a Foundation Fellow, he having applied at the earliest moment which his residence abroad - Gaboon, West Africa - permitted

Notes From Elsewhere

Robert Bruce Napoleon Walker, F.R.G.S., F.A.S., F.G.S., C.M.Z.S. (1832–1901), West African trader, explorer and collector of zoological specimens
He was born in 1832 in Hampshire his parents were Henry and Charlotte Walker and Robert was, as far as we know, the last of their 7 children (5 boys 2 girls)
His father was Lieutenant Henry Walker R.N. who saw action at Trafalgar as a Midshipman aboard the Bellerophon and was, along with 7 others, put in charge of the captured Spanish ship Monarca which they had to abandon on the way back to Gibraltar due to the storm which blew up after the battle.
Henry was promoted to Lieutenant in 1810. We have yet to pinpoint when and where he married and what Charlotte’s maiden name was but their first child was born in London in 1819 so we guess around 1817. Henry saw action several time during his naval career and was decorated and wounded. We know he was still in the navy in 1833 as he was presented to King William VI at St.James Palace after returning from the Med:
 
As yet we have not found where RBN was educated but he was by all accounts in Africa by the time he was 20. We believe he worked for a shipping and trading company name Hatton and Cookson of Liverpool perhaps establishing outposts and trading on their behalf in the Gabon.
 
We are getting the impression that RBN had some standing within the exploration fraternity judging by the huge number of letters he wrote to people such as R F Burton, Henry Stanley, James Irvine, Verney Lovett Cameron, Mary Kingsley to name but a few.
In 1854 RBN married Margaret Clara Molesworth daughter of Captain Arthur Molesworth of the Royal Marines. This family had a long and illustrious history members being with Cromwell in Ireland in the 1600s and another present at the execution of Mary Queen of Scots.
Their one and only son Harry was born 1857 but we believe his mother died sometime before 1870.
However whilst in the Gabon RBN had a relationship with Princess Angoroule Ikoutou of the Mpongwe and produced a son Andre Raponda Walker in 1871 who went on to become a priest and scholar and wrote a large number of books on the people and languages of the Gabon. He died in 1968.
We understand that RBN brought this son to England in 1875 but returned to Africa soon after.
In 1876 RBN remarried to the 18 year old Minnie Annetta Bevir but produced no children by her.
We also understand that RBNs son Harry spent time with his father in Africa as he himself later corresponds with the likes of Richard and Lady Isabel Burton in the 1880s.
(These are amongst the subjects of the letters we are expecting soon from the Hillington Library in California)
RBN died in London in 1901
[from Stephen Flinders]

Related Material Details

Other Material

objects at Pitt Rivers museum
Photos in Anthropological Society Album at PRM