William Walker (diver)
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In his time, William Walker, MVO (1869-1918) was the most experienced diver of Siebe Gorman Ltd. Working in water up to a depth of 6 m, during the period 1906-1911, he shored up the southern and eastern sides of Winchester Cathedral with over 25,000 bags of concrete, 115,000 concrete blocks and 900,000 bricks.
The Cathedral was in imminent danger of collapse at that time because it slowly sank into the ground which consisted of peat. To enable bricklayers to build supporting walls, the ground-water level had to be lowered. The removal of the water from the peat beneath the Cathedral would have caused the collapse of the building. To give the foundation walls some support, 235 pits were dug out along the southern and eastern sides of the building, each about 6 m deep. Walker went down and shored up the walls by putting concrete underneath them. He had to work six hours a day in complete darkness as the water contained floating sediment and was absolutely impenetrable to light.
After Walker had finished, the ground water was pumped out and the concrete Walker had put into place bore the foundation walls. Then conventional bricklayers were able to do their work the usual way and restore the damaged walls.
For his effort Walker was honoured with the title Member of the Royal Victorian Order. He and his wife died during the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918.
