The March Of Intellect Pub Hull 1851Hello

[Jill Upton]

Hello 

This is a first time for me on this site and hope that you may be able to assist.  I have just recently found out that I could be a distant relative of Whimsical Walker (Thomas Henry (Dawson) Walker born 21/7/1851. His father was Robert Stanley Walker and we believe his mother to be the landlady of the pub The March of Intellect in Hull.  I can not find the pub or any details of her. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Kind regards
Jill Upton (Edmondson)

[johndwadsworth]

http://www.hullcc.gov.uk/museumcollections/collections/search-results/image.php?SearchSubmit_x=1&accessionnumber=&keywords=on&keywordsorig=&placeorig=&titleorig=&ImagesOnly=yes&Sender=Contact&Page=127&irn=54808

[ShaunJ]

Welcome Jill,

"Around 1826 the Tiger became known as The March of Intellect (and locally as The Sweeps due to its unusual inn-sign), and was taken over by Worthington’s c.1900 and rebuilt, or at least re-fronted and became known as the Windsor."

http://www.paul-gibson.com/pubs-and-breweries/lost-pubs-of-hull-t-to-z.php

Caption to the engraving posted by Johndwadsworth:

"Streetscene depicting Waterworks Street with premises including the ' March of Intellect' public house, the 'Neptune' public house on the left side and the 'Paragon' public house on the right. The Town Docks Offices building can be seen in the background. There are many pedestrians and horses and carts in the street."

[ShaunJ]

The licensee at the time of the 1851 census was John Allen.

Robert Stark took it over after renovation in 1852.

[ShaunJ]

There is a public tree on Ancestry which has Thomas Henry Walker's mother as Rachel Snow.

Rachel Snow married a Robert Walker, victualler of Waterworks Street in Hull on Dec 6th 1843.

Subsequent news items mention Mrs Rachel Walker of the March of Intellect.

That Robert Walker died in August 1845

She remarried on November 4th 1846 - to another Robert Walker, "cashier to the Royal Amphitheatre"
(Hull Packet, 6 November 1846). 

They were at the March of Intellect at least until December 1849.
 

[ShaunJ]

Whimsical Walker claimed to have been born on July 5th 1851

https://archive.org/details/fromsawdusttowin00walk

The birth appears not to have been registered. By 1851 the Walkers were no longer running the March of Intellect but I have not been able to find them in the census.

[Jill Upton]

Hello ShaunJ

Thank you so much for all this fabulous information.. 
We did find a book written by Whimsical's Great Grandson Robert Breen, who informs that Thomas Henry Walker was born on 21/7/1851.

WHIMSICAL WALKER BIOGRAPHY
This is details of what Robert wrote:

WHIMSICAL WALKER
A clown of mystery
(Written by Robert Breen - great grandson of Whimsical Walker)
Mention the name "Whimsical Walker" and many different versions of who he was will be presented. This is the definitive outline:
Whimsical Walker toured the world 3 times, during the fourteen years he was with Hengler's Circus; and played 21 seasons in pantomime at the Drury Lane Theatre.
He came into the world on 21st July 1851, as Thomas Henry (Dawson) Walker - the son of the landlady of the inn The March of Intellect, in Hull, and Robert Stanley Walker, an advance man for Cooks' Circus.

I shall pass all this other information onto my relatives.
Once again many thanks. 
Jill Upton

[mirl]

Could this be his birth:

Thomas Walker
September quarter 1851 Bury Lancashire Volume 21 p352
(GRO shows mother's name as Dawson)

[ShaunJ]

Could this be his birth:

Thomas Walker
September quarter 1851 Bury Lancashire Volume 21 p352
(GRO shows mother's name as Dawson)

"An article published in the Balham and Tooting News gives a raft of additional information about Whimsical Walker, but just how accurate it all is, has not yet been ascertained:

"Whimsical" Walker was born Tom Walker in Jerrico, a small village two miles from Bury in Lancashire, on April 1st 1856.""

http://fredkarnocompany.com/whimsicalwalkerbiog.html