Date of Birth: 
About James Backhouse Walker
- James Backhouse Walker (14 October 1841 – 4 November 1899) was an Australian solicitor and historian.Walker was the eldest son of George Washington Walker, was born at Hobart.
- He was educated at the High School, Hobart, and the Quaker Bootham School, York.He was employed as a junior clerk in his father’s Hobart Savings Bank and in 1872 took articles and was admitted as barrister, solicitor and proctor of the Supreme Court of Tasmania in 1876.
- His social commitment was evident in his many pursuits.
- He sought improved conditions for workers as secretary of the working men’s club.
- He was a member of various educational boards and in 1889 proposed an examining university as the first step towards a teaching university.
- In the following year he was appointed member of the first council of the new university and in 1898 became its second vice-chancellor.
- He was elected to the council of the Royal Society of Tasmania in 1888. He was a trustee of the Tasmanian Public Library.
- Mr.
- Walker was the author of several brochures on the history of his native colony, taken chiefly from official sources: viz.
- "The French in Van Diemen's Land" (Hobart, 1889); "The Settlement of Tasmania, comprising Papers read before the Royal Society of Tasmania" (Hobart, 1890); "The Discovery and Occupation of Port Dalrymple" (Hobart, 1890).
- His papers on the discovery, early settlement and Aboriginal inhabitants of Tasmania, published in 1902 became a standard authority. The Law School of the University of Tasmania commemorates him with the J.
- B.
- Walker Memorial Prize. The Quakers in Tasmania commemorate his contribution to learning and social justice with an annual Backhouse Lecture .
Read more at Wikipedia