My friend Chris Walker, who has died of pneumonia aged 66, worked as a GP in Sheffield for more than 30 years, first at the radical practice in Darnall, then at Park medical centre until his retirement in 2014. He developed a special interest in working in the fields of drug rehabilitation and migraine.
Chris was born in Epsom, Surrey, the second of four children of Emma (nee Lewis), a nurse, and Derek Walker, a psychiatrist. The family moved to Painswick, Gloucestershire, and Chris went to Wycliffe college, then on to study medicine at Sheffield University. After graduating he travelled with friends overland to Africa in a self-assembled Unimog vehicle that resembled a mini-tank.
While a trainee GP, Chris met my friend, Rachel Strong, a ward sister at Middlewood hospital. We all moved into the “Red House” (with a red door and socialist housemates) in Hunter’s Bar, Sheffield, in 1984; four adults – me and my partner, Ted, Chris and Rachel – soon to be joined by our five children, plus a dog, Henry Blenkinsop.
Late night discussions, red wine and home brew kept our many visitors entertained. Chris made argument into an art form and was the ultimate host and cook, if you liked to eat roadkill at midnight. After five years, exhausted by the Red House party lifestyle, we went our separate ways but remained firm friends.
Chris had begun working in 1986 at the Darnall practice, which operated on socialist principles – all staff, whether GPs, nurses, cleaners or clerical workers, got the same hourly rate. Later, Chris and his family settled in the Sheffield suburb of Meersbrook, and he joined Park medical centre.
Their home was an open house for neighbours and friends; his BBQs and bonfires were renowned. He loved his allotment and DIY, and his drill or trowel were often a table centre-piece at dinner parties. With characteristic generosity, Chris and Rachel recently lent their home to be used in a local independent film, Mr Wong’s Lullaby, 2021.
Chris’s Pembrokeshire roots through his mother’s family were important. He loved the family cottage close to his maternal grandparents in Ambleston and enjoyed sharing this beautiful place with friends.
Concussion after a cycling accident in France in 2009 started a decline in Chris’s health. Epilepsy and recurrent bouts of pneumonia over recent years had left him fragile but he was still a determined spirit. For all his maverick individualism he was a loving, loyal man who held his family and his many friends close to his heart.
They will remember Chris as a daredevil, giggling on his homemade zipwire, whizzing over a bonfire, a glass of red wine in one hand and a machete in the other.
Chris is survived by Rachel, whom he married in 2004, their son, Jim, and daughter, Emma, three grandchildren, Toby, Rowan and Fern, and his siblings, John, Helen and Charlotte.
