Notes on Revd. O.R. Walkey

First visit to Amazon 1913  ... with Evangelical Union of South America led by F C Glass

Next trip 1919 as Agent for British and foreign bible soc.  lasted 2yrs

Map mentioned 1922. by this time he was back in the UK living Cornwall? and my guess is that he drew the map here from notes taken previously, so the first version of the map would have been completed by this date, though I know there were constant updates, which might not have made the donated map.

His cartographer’s errors could be found in the Times atlas until at least the mid 70’s, so we know his maps were the basis here, though copies were also requested  the American airforce as for a long time they were the best source available.

He would not have been travelling the Amazon with a completed map .... he would have needed somewhere to collate everything.

As a child the maps were kept in our house for a few years and I remember it as a collection of rolled up sheets of paper, probably about A2 size, later in the 80/90's it moved with Granny ( Ethel his wife) to live with Alan and Barbara, where Alan arranged a protective coating for it, shortly after this Uncle Sam, who i think was the official owner requested that it be donated to the Royal Geographical Society

 Brief Life History of Oliver Rowland

When Oliver Rowland Walkey was born on 26 October 1878, in Woolwich, Kent, England, United Kingdom, his father, Rowland Walkey, was 38 and his mother, Lucy Chamberlin, was 39. He married Ethel Nannette Potts on 4 July 1910, in Latrobe, Tasmania, Australia. They were the parents of at least 2 sons and 1 daughter. He lived in St Laurence in Thanet, Kent, England, United Kingdom in 1891 and Ealing, Middlesex, England, United Kingdom in 1901. He died on 30 January 1962, in Chichester, Sussex, England, United Kingdom, at the age of 83.

Family

Oliver Rowland Walkey was born in England to Colonel Rowland Walkey and Lucy Chamberlin. His known siblings were:

From:  https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/282388753

Retyped with a few errors

How old do you have to be before adventure ceases?

 To which the answer comes today from a modest bungalow outside the  city of Bath and it is simply that  you are never too old, consider the case of Reverend Oliver Walkey; he has just returned to his bungalow after a 2,000 mile trip which took him 18 months.

 Where did he go ?

Why far up the Amazon where few Europeans have ventured and he came back calm and unperturbed and just in time to sudden his celebrate his 74th birthday birthday, white bearded he had wanted to make the trip for a long time before world world one and later in the 20th he had voyaged there many times as he felt there was still much missionary work to be done there but no missionary society would back his latest trip, they would not take responsibility for a man of his age making such a voyage, “too old” they said, “nonsense” said Mr Walkey  if they won't send me then I'll send myself which he proceeded to do.


He got in touch with his eldest son 38 year old Sam Walkey, a surveyor in Southampton.
Would he care to join him at his own expense?

 He would, and  the two men booked  on the cheapest line to the Amazon they could find 75 pounds a head tourist cast and only Portuguese foods served after Lisbon, they landed at the tourists stopping off point 1000 Miles up the Amazon and the end of the steamer run with exactly seven pounds between them.

 Looking back now, many people thought we were mad we didn't have enough money to put up in a hotel, but some kind of man let us stay in his summer house.

 We kept Faith with ourselves and our project, we wanted to see whether there could be any new mission sites could be established up the Amazon and we wanted to map some unsurveyed parts of the river their confidence was Justified office of help began to come in and American offered a launch if they could fit it out the themselves and make it riverworthy for the trip others gave paraffin and food Father and Son fitted to bunks into their ancient boat overhaul the tiny five horsepower engine and set up and set off upstream .

Son Sam was skipper Father Walkey was crew and very nimble he needed to be for the boat had no reverse gear and the only way to get going from a shore stop was for old Mr Walkey to push the boat out with a  long pole and then jump aboard smartly.


Once, they're propeller hit a submerged pile and bent the shaft, when they raised the engine the craft vibrated so much that the seams began to leak and more water came inboard than they could pump out, so  they had no choice but to stop, the boat they ran it into a bank and some local fishermen help them to drag it out then they pulled them pulled out the propeller shaft board two holes in two pieces of hardwood and threaded the shaft through them and bent it straight.


Once a poisonous bird eating spider crawled over Oliver Walkey’s bare chest who was lucky enough to have it scooped up into a tobacco tin before it could sting.  

The river was in full flood 50 feet above its normal level, the tops of forest trees brushed against their hull and  fish swam where the brushes grew,  they stopped at every settler’s  hut, held services for Brazilians and Indians and distributed copies of the Bible in Portuguese while conducting sing songs with an accordion.

 Now the Walkey father and Son say we feel we have proved that if you have faith anything is possible, we learned that all we had to do was to be willing to take the first step in our case to book a ticket to the Amazon one step at a time One step at a time is enough but make that step unfaulteringly.

From https://antropos.org.uk/indigenous-peoples-brazil/heart-amazonia-beyond/

An extraordinary Christian, who is not mentioned in the history books, Rev Oliver Walkey made his first visit there in 1913. He went to the centre, at Manaus, the city a thousand miles up the Amazon that flourished as the boom-town for the rubber trade of the whole of the region. It had a world monopoly in the growing rubber markets, and had all the fineries of elegant late Victorian life, even an Opera House. Nevertheless, the decline of Manaus and the Amazonian rubber trade was already setting in when the missionaries arrived, due to the perverse commercial vision of a fellow Englishman, who a few years before had jumped on a ship with the seeds of the rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis). The disorganised exploitation of the rubber in the forest could not compete with the organised plantations in Malaysia.

However, Walkey’s burden was that the vast hinterland was untouched by the Gospel, and one might add basic justice. The major cities Manaus and Belem were ‘occupied’. Two missionaries Justin Nelson and William Taylor, Methodist Episcopalians from the USA had worked in Manaus since 1883. The larger port of Belem, near the mouth of the Amazon, already had a number of small struggling churches, including the beginnings of the Assemblies of God, later Brazil’s largest denomination. The same time that Walkey had passed through the port, two Americans of Swedish origin had prayed that God might show them where to start a new work. The name ‘Belem’ had been given them, but they had to look in an atlas to see whether such a place existed. They witnessed there and that was the beginning of another remarkable work of God.

Walkey set out to travel up the Rio Japurá towards Colombia with another extraordinary missionary pioneer, Fredrick Glass, a pioneer colporteur of the Bible Society, who had been converted while working in the gold mine of Ouro Prêto in Minas Gerais, a thousand miles south of the Amazon. Later his son David was to be a noted leader of EUSA, now Latin Link, and founder of a pioneer Christian bookshop in Rio de Janeiro. The Rio Japurá is one of the many southern tributaries of the River Amazon, 2,820 km (1,750 miles) long with its source in the Andes. In March 1921, Walkey returned to Britain and wrote of his experience there and of its vastness. Walkey, being like Studd a man who had the courage to act on his own vision, returned to Manaus as the BFBS representative for the Amazon Valley during 1919-1921. He was to have an unfading vision for Amazonia, in spite of long periods away, that was to motivate others to form at least four missions for there and to lead him to found the West Amazon Mission, some thirty years later, and return at the age of 71.

Oliver Walkey mentioned in a letter 1919 .. voyage to Amazon

R.M.S: Anselm
Tuesday, March 11 | 1919  

from   Eddington, Sir Arthur Stanley (1882-1944), knight, theoretical physicist and astrophysicist to his mother

https://trin-2.maxarchiveservices.co.uk/index.php/letter-from-a-s-eddington-to-sarah-ann-eddington-11

My very dear Mother

We are now approaching Lisbon and expect to arrive soon after daylight tomorrow morning. The weather has been pretty good; it was warmest on Sunday, which was a beautiful sunny day, and one could sit out on deck chairs without an overcoat. Yesterday and today, there was more wind and occasional showers. It has not been very rough, but there was sufficient motion to make a good many of the passengers unhappy. Of our party, Crommelin & Cottingham succumbed for a time, but they both seem much better today.

We all arrived at Euston an hour-and a half before the train started; but it took a good while to deal with our bulky luggage. We were charged 30/– excess, but most of that was for the object-glasses which being labelled “glass” were charged at a higher rate. We got to Liverpool at 3∙45 and then difficulties began. The Hotels were full and there were scarcely any porters at the station. At last we found a porter of a baggage agency, and put all except our handbags in his charge to deliver to the Steamer. Then we set off in a taxi to hunt for a Hotel. After 3 or 4 attempts we got in at quite a comfortable commercial hotel. I think we were probably very lucky. It was a pouring wet night, so we did not go out.

The next day we got down to the dock about 10 a.m. Our luggage was promised for 10∙30 a.m.; but did not arrive. Soon after 11 we had to go on board, because the emigration officer was only there for a short time. He just looked at the passports and did not worry about anything else. We were not very anxious about the luggage because we soon found about a dozen other passengers were in the same plight as ourselves having entrusted their luggage to the same firm. Ultimately about 12∙30 it all turned up, and we went down to lunch, much relieved.

The Anselm is a very nice boat, and seems much roomier than I expected. I should think there are at least sixty first-class passengers on board. Our cabin is nicely placed, a good height above the water, and is very quiet. Davidson & Crommelin are next door. It seems curious to have done with rationing entirely—unlimited sugar, and large slices of meat, puddings with pre-war quantity of raisins & currants in them, new white rolls, and so on.

We left at about 2 p.m. and went slowly through a chain of docks to the Mersey. One of the Directors of the Booth Line was on board at the start and saw us for a few minutes. We saw the lights of Holyhead about 9 p.m. and stopped a few minutes to drop the pilot. Since then we have seen no land whatever, and have had only very vague ideas as to our position; there is still a war-regulation which forbids them letting us know where we are & what our course is.

Davidson & Crommelin had to sit at the Captain’s table, so our party was broken up. It is supposed to be a special favour to be asked to sit there; but as they are too far from the Captain to get to know him, it does not seem much good. There is one other passenger whom I knew through correspondence, Mr. Walkey an amateur astronomer. He is going out for the Bible Society to live on a house-boat on the Amazon travelling up and down the various tributaries. He expects to be out there most of his life.

I have had a few games of chess with Crommelin and also with a Frenchman, have read a bit, and passed the time very comfortably. I am quite glad to be having a long steamer trip again.

With very dear love from
your affectionate son
Stanley

Oliver Walkey referenced in astronomical paper    https://istardb.org/wp-content/uploads/tainacan-items/1018/19456/Sampson-2007-Estimating-the-Solar-Apex-Using-Stellar-Radial-Vel-1.pdf

Article dated February  2025   https://www.obsmag.org/issues/published/2025/02/1304.pdf

 Rev. Oliver Rowland Walkey was elected an FRAS in 1912 while a lecturer at UCL. By chance he was a fellow passenger of Eddington’s (with whom he had corresponded) on voyage for the 1919 eclipse, though he was himself heading for the Amazon as a missionary. In 1940, while in India, he published Concise General Astronomy with Harihara Subramania Aiyar. He rejoined the RAS in 1943 and published a third MN paper in 1946. Previously at Uppsala, Carl Vilhelm Ludvig Charlier became professor and