William Stuart Walker

By Tad Stoner
tad@caymannetnews.com

William Stuart Walker, OBE, founder of WS Walker and Company, later Walkers Attorneys at Law, and the Caledonian group of companies, and co-founder of Stuarts Walker Hersant, was described this week as a man of integrity and vision.

Former colleagues of the Georgetown, British Guiana-born Mr Walker, who passed away after a long illness on Tuesday, 1 July, at the age of 82 in his South Sound home, said he had been a valued personal friend, both modest and honest, and a founder of modern Cayman.

“I had the pleasure and privilege of knowing him since 1946,” said long-time friend and colleague Ramon Alberga. “We met at Trinity Hall in Cambridge, and have been firm friends ever since. He brought me to the Cayman Islands, and briefed me on my first case in 1963.”

Mr Walker was born 27 March 1926 to a West Indian family, a British-Barbadian mother and English father. He attended the Lodge School in Barbados, followed by Trinity Hall, Cambridge, between 1945 and 1948, when he won an MA Honours in Law.

He was called to the Bar at London’s Inner Temple in 1950, followed by one year at Lausanne, Switzerland’s Centre d’Etudes Industrielles, where he earned a Certificate in Business Administration in 1953.

Mr Walked worked for 10 years in Canada in a series of quasi-legal capacities, though eventually tiring of the climate and seeking opportunities closer to home.

He worked in Mr Alberga’s Kingston offices for one year, gaining admission in 1963 to practise as a barrister in Jamaica, which at that time included the Cayman Islands. He finally moved to George Town in January 1964.

“He started [WS Walker] on 10 January 1964,” said his long-time personal assistant Alice Mae Coe, “and I started with him on 14 June 1965. I worked with him until he retired from the firm on 30 September 1999.”

At the founding of the partnership, the Cayman Islands boasted a single bank, Barclay’s, few telephones and no jet aircraft.

Mr Walker told an interviewer last year that during his last two years in Canada, recognising the opportunities in the Caribbean, he had sought a location for an offshore-finance business. He settled on greenfield Grand Cayman, he said, because of an eager government and local community.

Mr Walker and colleague Arthur Hunter wrote much of the founding legislation for the local financial industry, including the Legal Practitioner’s Law, the Trust Law and the Confidential Relationship (Preservation) Law.

“He left a great legacy for the Cayman Islands, having helped develop the financial industry, founding and expanding WS Walker,” Mr Alberga said.

“He was successful because he helped build Cayman into what it is today,” Ms Coe added.

Another long-standing friend and colleague, Charles Kirkconnell, said Mr Walker had not just been a friend, but a respected partner.

“He was a valued personal friend – honest, upright, a man of integrity. I knew him from 1962 when he became a company lawyer for Kirkconnell Ltd,” he said.

“We also had an association with Pirate’s Cove, where he was a partner. He was one of the founders of the financial-services industry; he guided the country. He advised governments, and they listened.”
On 28 December 1983, Mr Walked married his Torontan wife Janet, a union that subsequently produced David, born 26 January 1968; Jennifer, born 13 July 1970; and Robert, born 17 December 1971.

The years following David’s birth were busy. In 1970, Mr Walker founded offshore company management firm Cayhaven Corporate Services, forerunner to Caledonian Bank and Trust Ltd.

Ultimately, Caledonian diversified into Caledonian Bank Ltd and Caledonian Trust Ltd. Various subsidiaries include Caledonian Financial Services (Cayman) Ltd and Caledonian Insurance Services (Cayman) Ltd with subsidiaries in the Isle of Man and Chicago and a representative in the British Virgin Islands.

Despite his 1999 retirement from his law firm, Mr Walker, in 2002, founded Stuarts Walker Hersant Attorneys at Law with son David, who today is Managing Director of Caledonian Group.

Mr Walker was a founder, member and twice past president of the Chamber of Commerce; a founder and member of the Tourism Advisory Council, the Caymanian Protection Board - a forerunner to today’s various immigration panels - and the Cayman Islands Law Society, of which he was also three times past president.

He was a member of both the Inter-American Bar Association and the Cayman Islands Bar Association, and an International Associate of the American Bar Association.

“I knew him for 62 years and I am experiencing a great sense of personal loss,” said Mr Alberga. “He was a loyal friend.”

“He will be missed. It is a sad, sad day for the Cayman Islands,” said Mr Kirkconnell.

“For sure he will be missed,” said Ms Coe. “not just by those of us who worked with him, but by anybody who appreciated his contributions to the Cayman Islands.”