James Walker (Surveyor General)

James Thomas Walker CB (1 December 1826 – 16 February 1896) was an Anglo-Indian Surveyor General of India.

He was born at Cannanore, India, the son of John Walker of the Madras civil service and educated privately in Wales and at the military college of the East India Company in Addiscombe, Surrey.

In 1844 he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Bombay Engineers and in 1846 sent to Sindh, India as an executive engineer at Sakkar. In 1848 he was appointed an assistant field engineer in the Bombay column, under Bridadier-General Sir Henry Dundas, sent from Bombay to co-operate with Lord Gough's army in the Second Anglo-Sikh War. At the battle of Gujrat he was in command of a detachment of sappers attached to the Bombay horse artillery, and he took part under Sir Walter Gilbert in the pursuit of the Sikhs and Afghans.

After the subsequent annexation of the Punjab, he was employed from 1849 to 1853 in making a military reconnaissance of the northern-west frontier from Peshawar to Dera Ismail Khan. He took part at the end of 1849 in the attacks on Suggao, Pali, and Zarmandi under Colonel Bradshaw, and was mentioned in his despatches for the skill and ability with which he had bridged the rapid Kabul River. In 1850 he served under Sir Charles Napier in the expedition against the Afridis of the Kohat Pass, and in 1852 under Sir Colin Campbell in the operation against the Utman Khels, where his men bridged the swift Swat River. In 1853 he served under Colonel Boileau in his expedition against the Bori Afridis. On the completion of the military survey of the Peshawar frontier he was promoted to lieutenant.

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