Reverend Joseph Walker, Ipswich, c.1898

This is a photo of Reverend Joseph Walker who was born near Manchester, England, on May 12, 1840. He became a minister of the Primitive Methodist Church when he was twenty years old. He married Harriet Ives and left England for Australia where he arrived in Victoria and served as a minister of the Congregational Church at Ballarat. He moved to Ipswich in Queensland in 1885 where he became pastor of the Ipswich Congregational Church. He was elected President of the Queensland Congregational Union in 1887 and again in 1901. He was one of the founders of the Christian Endeavour Society in Queensland. Reverend Walker started the Congregational Church at Cracknell Road, South Brisbane, where he continued to serve until his death on March 30, 1905.