My name is DeBorah S. Walker, and Ralph S. Walker was my father, he was born on July 15, 1939, in St. Michael, and was a Victor of All Sports in 1955 & 1956, Track, Soccer and Cricket.

Ralph also opened the bowling for Combermere School when the great Wes Hall was wicket keeper. He went on to open the bowling for Empire Cricket Club with the great Charles Griffith, and as a member of the Barbados Cricket Colts team in 1960/61, he got the great Collin Cowdrey out caught by David Holford, but was ruled a no-ball.

His name is still on the walls of Combermere school. Ralph proclaimed that “Combermere was the greatest school in the world”. Ralph continued his education at the University of London where he majored in Sociology, and he returned to Barbados in 1972, and worked for various government agencies. He later developed the Pinelands Workshop and there he mentored former Minister Hamilton Lashley.

Barbados Youth Service

In 1980 he had a decent campaign run against then Minister Bradford Taitt…slogan (Win With Walker).  He went on to create the Barbados Youth Service Program which is still ongoing today. Before his retirement from an illustrious government career, he served as the Coordinator for PM Owen Arthur’s Poverty Alleviation Initiative.

He also mobilized, organized, and inspired a corps of young promising Barbadians to participate in a youth centered Public Affairs programme, which has become the subject of legend. He even drove to the schools, picked up the youth and took them to CBC.

Ralph was writing a book, and one of the books he wanted to read, and reference was “Why We Kneel, How We Rise”, by Michael Holding. Ralph was for the betterment of people, and he focused on the youth of Barbados, and this book was to be an extension of his career. 

I want to give big respect to Constable Maynard from the Black Rock station, who went and did a wellness check for me on Monday, June 10^th, I then called back to make sure that a police officer, the ambulance and my sister were there to escort my father to the hospital where he lived for about a week after being admitted.  Ralph died on Wednesday, June 19, 2024.

We don't know how long he was there in the house unconscious, because the call came in the afternoon on Friday, June 7th, 2024, but a nurse called my sister telling her that he's breathing low and shallow, and that he may not make it through the weekend.  Therefore, once I got no word of him passing over the weekend, I decided to call the Black Rock police to follow-up on getting him to the hospital.

He did live for another week in the hospital…but he never regained consciousness.

Ralph would’ve been 85 on July 15^th, 2024.

Ralph S. Walker’s funeral was on July 18^th, 2024, at 3p.m.

DeBorah S. Walker

My siblings in order of birth: Ricardo Baker, (Juan Hope, deceased), DeBorah S. Walker, Roger S. Walker, Antoinette Wiltshire, and Remi Holder.