Harold Walker was born in 1875, the elder son of Dr Samuel Walker, JP, MRCS, a general practitioner in Middlesbrough. He was educated at Uppingham and King's College, Cambridge, going into residence in 1893, taking an honours BA and being captain of tennis. For his clinical training he went to St Bartholomew's Hospital, qualifying with the Conjoint Diploma in 1901 and graduating the same year. He served as house surgeon and ophthalmic house surgeon at St Bartholomew's and was admitted as a Fellow in 1905, before joining his father in practice in Middlesbrough as a general practitioner surgeon, a common practice in his generation. In 1914 he was commissioned in the RAMC serving in France as a Captain in No 6 CCS. Apart from this interlude, the whole of his life was spent in Middlesbrough in the public affairs of which he played a prominent part as a Justice of the Peace. Beside his general practice he was ophthalmic surgeon to the Eston Hospital, and later surgeon, senior surgeon, and finally consulting surgeon to the North Ormesby Hospital. With the advent of the NHS he was made honorary consulting surgeon to the Teesside Hospital Group. For a time he was joined in practice by his brother; he and his father before him practised medicine in Middlesbrough for a century. He was a medical referee to the Ministry of Labour and National Service and in 1924 Chairman of the Cleveland Branch of the BMA. He was much in demand as an after dinner speaker with a superb sense of humour and command of the Yorkshire dialect. His hobbies were fishing and shooting at both of which he was expert. He died at his home, 20 Southfield Road, Middlesbrough on 3 June 1966, aged 91. He was unmarried.