Jack Walker

Lore & Background

Walker was born in Blackburn, the youngest of three children, and left school at 13. He worked as a sheet metal worker and a conscript craftsman in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. In 1951, following the death of his father Charles, Walker took over the family sheet metal business. Walkersteel was built from a back-street scrap metal business to a major force in the steel industry. By 1990 it had become the largest steel stockholder in Britain, employing 3,400 people at 50 sites. In 1988 the business was making an annual profit of £48m. Walkersteel completed a major deal with GKN, purchasing subsidiary GKN Steelstock, and was later sold to British Steel Corporation for a reported £360m. In November 1983, the WalkerSteel group took over Jersey European Airways, which later became Flybe. Walker took full control of Blackburn Rovers in January 1991, spending £25 million on new players within three years, including breaking the British transfer record twice. The Ewood Park ground was reconstructed at a cost of more than £20 million. Rovers won the Premiership title in the 1994-95 season, their first top division title for 81 years. Walker died on 17 August 2000 from cancer.

In Their Own Story

The rain had not stopped for three days. Inside the Goodison Road boardroom, a glass of sherry sat untouched while the chairman paced the length of the carpet, muttering to himself about transfer fees and a striker who 'wasn't good enough for this football club.' His secretary, a woman who had served him for twenty years, simply refilled his tea and said nothing. He stopped pacing, turned, and said, very quietly, 'They'll remember what I did for this club. They always do.' She poured the tea. He drank it. Outside, the rain kept falling on the Goodison stand, and somewhere in the city, a young boy in a blue shirt was already drawing the club's crest on the back of a maths worksheet.

Reader's Guide

Jack Walker is best known as the owner and benefactor of Blackburn Rovers, not as chairman of Everton. His primary motto was 'think big'. He invested in property development in and around Blackburn, and sponsored First Tower United and Jersey Rugby Club. After his death, a family trust structure owned his business interests, including the club. Blackburn Rovers were sold by the Jack Walker settlement in November 2010 to Venky's. A statue of Walker stands in the Jack Walker Memorial garden at Ewood Park, and a road near the park is named 'Jack Walker Way'.

Did You Know?

• Jack Walker left school at age 13.
• Walkersteel was sold for a reported £360m, the highest price ever paid for a private company at the time.
• Walker broke the British transfer record twice: signing Alan Shearer for £3.3 million in 1992 and Chris Sutton for £5 million in 1994.
• Walker was present at the 1994 FA Charity Shield leading the Rovers team onto the pitch at the old Wembley Stadium.
• Two buildings at Exeter International Airport are named in his honour: Jack Walker House and the New Walker Hangar.