Notes from research by Newton Walkington
Born on the 7th May,1882 at Gordon (between Quorn and Hawker in the north of South Australia). he was the youngest child of the first marriage of William George Walkington who was a farmer. His mother died when he was about three years old and his eldest sister Ada took care of him. Not much information about his early life is available. It appears that he went to a small country school at Wepowie and his name appears in an old Wepowie Sunday School Roll. About the turn of the century he went to Western Australia to join his brothers who had previously gone to the Goldfields. His father died in 1898 and apparently the farm at Pekina was sold and the widow of the second marriage moved to Peterborough. (see William George for further details.)
It appears likely that Gilbert met his future wife at Ravensthorpe in Western Australia. He married Gertrude Smith at St. George’s Cathedral, Perth. At this time Gertrude was living in Perth and Gilbert at Mundaring where he was a wood merchant. While at Mundaring he acquired an orchard and it seems he was still there when his first child (Newton Gilbert) was born in 1910. (see Battye Library letter 14/2/84) The second child (Harvey Mawby) was also born at Mundaring. By this time Gilbert was the manager of a Bakery Business.
It seems that in about 1914 the family moved to Katanning where Gilbert again worked for a baker. Later in 1914 it was decided to take up a farming property at a place called Kwobrup. The name of the farm was Kojonup. Location 6117. The conditions on this farm were very grim. The house consisted of a timber frame covered with white washed hessian. The floor was earth covered with linoleum and there was no ceiling. The bedrooms were divided from the living room and kitchen with curtains. The laundry facilities were merely tubs out in the open. The sheds were built of rough bush timber and the roofs were straw. The farm was generally underdeveloped and it was going to be a struggle to make a living but Gilbert had been brought up on a farm and was keen to get established on his own property. However, disaster struck. 1914 and 1915 were two of the worst drought years that Australia had known and the farm failed. The family returned to Katanning in 1916 where Gilbert worked for a large grocery store. In 1919 he was offered a job managing a stationery shop in Sydney and the family left Fremantle on the Karoola for Adelaide. Here contact was made with relatives and as word was received that the job had fallen through it was decided to stay in South Australia. In 1920 Gilbert was selected out of many applicants for a position with the T & G Mutual Life Society as a Life Assurance Salesman. In this new field he was very successful but owing to a break down in health he took a less worrying position with what was then known as the Adelaide Electric Supply Co. for a short period.
During 1920 and 1921 the family lived in Parkestone Avenue, Dulwich where Gilbert’s daughter Merle Gertrude was born on 12th May, 1920. In 1921 a house was purchased in Sixth Avenue, St. Peters. During 1924 Gilbert was asked by the T & G to go to Renmark to take over the agency in the Riverland as up to then the area was serviced by a part-time representative only. Originally travel was done by horse and trap. A Ford car was purchased at the end of 1924. The family joined Gilbert in 1925 and lived in a house at the corner of Seventeenth Street and Pyap Avenue.
During his time in the Riverland he became widely known and took on the jobs of secretary of the football and rowing clubs. He was also a Freemason. Gilbert was very successful in his business and in 1926 he won the Society’s Fiftieth Anniversary Sales Competition. He was the outright winner of the Jubilee Stakes and wrote more business than any other representative of the Society in Australia and New Zealand. The Society’s paper the Accelerator stated “Agent Walkington of S.A. won the Agency Jubilee Stakes Contest in magnificent style, and the Accelerator congratulate him on proving himself the best in the agency ranks in all-round results.”
1928 found the family back in their St. Peters home, Gilbert had been promoted to take charge for the T & G of the whole of the South East District of the state including Murray Bridge, Victor Harbour and Mount Gambier and all the area in between.
This new job meant a lot of travelling and much time away from home. Around about 1930 a new house at Newark Road, Torrens Park was purchased. About this time he became a member of the Unley Park Bowling Club. In September 1937, after returning to work after a serious illness, Gilbert was tragically drowned in the river at Murray Bridge. It was a sad end to a gentleman who was well respected and made friends wherever he went. His widow, Gertrude moved to Burnside Road, Burnside and later Woodlands Park. She died on the 9th September, 1958.