George Walker

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Lifespan: 1853 England - 1924 Krugersdorp

Family: He married Elizabeth Johanna Pretorius (1866 Potchefstroom - 1930 Krugersdorp) in 1883.

Occupation: prospector, coal miner

George Walker in 1919. Unidentified photographer.

Timeline

Biography

Walker started working in a coal mine at the age of 14. In 1876, he sailed to South Africa on the 'Balmoral Castle', arriving in Cape Town. The next day he departed to Beaufort West, then immediately went to Kimberley, where he worked for Mr Hartley, a diamond washer, at Du Toitspan.

He soon trekked to Zululand where he joined Weatherley's Horse. In 1879 he was mining at Pilgrim's Rest and Lydenburg, where he found some gold nuggets. During the 1st Boer War, he joined Henry Nurse's Horse in Pretoria (1880-81). After the war he returned to Lydenburg.

In 1882 he moved to Barberton where he was one of the pioneer diggers, but after seven months, work was halted by the concessionaire, and he moved to Potchefstroom where he met his future wife. In 1885 he again prospected in Barberton, but ran out of funds and had to return to Kroonstad. Here he and friend George Harrison planned to return to Barberton, but en-route they heard that Fred Struben required a miner at his Confidence Reef mine. Here Walker worked for about four months.

At the same time, Harrison accepted a contract to build a house for Oosthuizen on Langlaagte. Walker decided to assist in the building of the house (Feb 1886).

Transcript of Walker's 1st statement in 1924:

"When I left Mr. Struben I went to see if Harrison had finished bullding the house (for Hendrik Oosthuizen). I decided to help him to get the work finished, so a portion of February, 1886, we spent on the farm. One Sunday morning in that month I was so impatient to get away and felt a little down at the delay at staying there. It was Sunday morning, I went for a walk. While strolling across the farm of Mr. William Oosthuizen on the Western boundary of the farm on which the house was being built, I made the discovery. I stumbled over an outcrop of rock and on examining it found it to be conglomerate. I became the prospector, chipping a bit here, a bit there off the rock..." 

He took a sample, crushed the rock and panned it in a nearby stream. He found a ring of gold in the bottom of the pan.

"After finding it, all idea of going to Barberton was. knocked in, and I kept the find a secret, even from my chum Harrison for the time being. But while I was away in search of money, my secret became public property. A carpenter named George Honeyball, was responsible for it. He has also been working at the Confidence Mine. After coming over to visit the widow Mrs. Oosthuizen he found the place where I had opened out a little and took some of the reef to the Confidence Mine and showed it to Mr. Godfray Lys who with the Strubens was interested in the Confidence Mine. It was only a matter of a few days then before the important nature of the find became public."


Walker passed away in Krugersdorp in 1924, living in poverty and suffering from the effects of miner’s phthisis (silicosis).

Sources

  • George Walker - Discoverer of the Main Reef. 1926. Macdonald, W. The Sun and Agricultural Journal of S.A.
  • George Walker
  • A Critical Examination of the Evidence Relating to the Discovery of the Main Reef Series of Auriferous Conglomerates on the Witwatersrand, on Portion of the Farm Langlaagte, Belonging to G. C. Oosthuizen, in 1886. 1947. Krause, F.E.T.

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