Unlike his friend William Morris, Walker came from a working class family and was forced to leave school and start earning at the age of 13. However, Walker always continued a programme of self-education. The quality of his intellect is evidenced by his ability to write for readerships whose formal education would have undoubtedly far outstripped his own, and by his association with organisations such as the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings and the Society of Antiquaries.
After several miserable years as an apprentice draper he joined the Chiswick-based Typographic Etching Company in 1873. It was a period of new developments in printed reproduction of illustrations and photographs as well as in typesetting. The mainstay of their business was producing blocks for printing line illustrations using photographic negatives.
In 1886, in his mid 30s, Walker founded his own company, which built a reputation for expertise in photogravure, a technique that could reproduce photographic tones. His firm specialised in cutting-edge techniques for reproducing works of art and photographs as book illustrations and helped to revolutionise the book making industry.
A later Walker letterhead described his company’s activities as ‘process and general engravers, draughtsmen, map constructors, copperplate printers, collotypers and photographers of works of art’ - just some of the processes in which he was expert.
Walker became a father-figure and fount of all wisdom to typographers all over the world – C.J. St John Hornby in the UK, Bruce Rogers and D.B. Updike in the US, and Harry Kessler, the Anglo-German publisher and political activist who was involved with the influential Art Nouveau-era magazine Pan.