Wilford Walker was born on August 18, 1916, the son of Franklin Russell Walker and Stella Brewer Walker, of 349 South Mitton Street, Sarnia. Prior to enlisting, Wilford was employed as a guard (constable) in the security office of the Polymer Corporation plant in Sarnia. He had a half-brother, Russell Walker who, at the time of Wilford’s death, was serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force, as a Leading Aircraftmen, having been in England since June 1944. Wilford Walker would marry Beatrice May Weiss of Sarnia, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Guy Weiss, who lived just outside the city in the vicinity of Perch Creek. Wilford and Beatrice May Walker would reside at 257 Brock Street, Sarnia and they would have two children together, Frankie and Shirley.
Wilford enlisted in the Canadian Army, becoming a member of Lincoln and Welland Regiment, R.C.I.C. and attaining the rank of Private. He would go overseas in September 1944, and he arrived in the European battle zone on approximately November 1, 1944. Less than three months later, on January 28, 1945, Private Wilford Walker would lose his life while fighting in Holland, during the Liberation of the Netherlands. In early February of 1945, Beatrice May Walker in Sarnia would receive a telegram from Ottawa that merely stated that her husband, Gunner Wilford Walker has been reported killed in action. No other information was provided. At the time, his family only knew that he had been serving in Belgium and Holland.
A week prior to Wilford’s death, wife Beatrice May Walker underwent an appendectomy in Sarnia General Hospital and was still a patient there when the telegram arrived at her home to inform her of her husband’s death. Upon leaving the hospital, Beatrice May returned to the couple’s Brock Street address, with their two children, Frankie (age 4) and Shirley (age 2), and her sister, Mrs. Gatecliff. Wilford Walker would later officially be listed as, Killed in action, in the field (Holland). Twenty-eight year old Wilford Walker is buried in Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery, Netherlands, Grave XV.H.5.
SOURCES: A, B, C, D, E, F, L, N, 2C, 2D