Roy Walker - Early Life

Early Life

Born in Belfast, as a teenager Walker performed in the Francis Longford Choir, then worked as a riveter in the Harland and Wolff shipyard. He was the Northern Ireland champion hammer thrower for three years, and represented his country internationally. He spent a short time as a comedy partner of James Young before spending seven years in the British Army.

Walker, who first went to work at the age of nine, "to bring a few extra pennies into the house", ran a pawn shop whilst working in the evenings as the compère at the Talk of the Town club during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. One day he was confronted by two men who stuck a Browning pistol in his face and demanded to know: "Are you married to a Fenian?" Walker later recalled, "Protestants and Catholics drank together in the Talk of the Town – integration happened in front of my eyes every night. As a Protestant myself, I had lots of Catholic friends – the Army had been full of them. Bob Hope said you should never admit to anything and that day I didn't. But then I was told: 'We're giving everyone 24 hours – that's you and them Fenian lovers across the street.' I got one of the cards I'd used for the apple prices and on the back I wrote: 'The owner of this shop served Queen and country for six years'. I stuck it in the window, closed up and walked down the Woodstock Road for the last time."

The shop was then firebombed and Walker fled with his family to England where he toured as a professional comedian, in working men's clubs and cabaret.