Trevor Calcott Walker: 6/3/1930 – 30/11/2009

June 29th, 2010 by JCB
Posted in Obituaries | 1 Comment »

Trevor was born on Teesside and educated at  Sir William Turner’s School, Coatham, Redcar, a school of which he was very proud. In 1947, he was apprenticed to the Tees Pilotage Service and for the next three and half years served as a Boat Hand on the Cruising Pilot Cutter B.O.Davies.  In 1951, he went away to sea and was placed by the Authority with The Blue Funnel Line, serving in the Dardanus, Dolius and Bellerophon.  He obtained his Second Mate’s Ticket in 1953 at South Shields Marine College.  Whilst waiting for a Pilot’s Licence on the Tees he went back to sea, first with Cairn Line in the Cairnavon and then with Constantines in the Edenwood, Gartwood and Southwood.  At last, the call came and in 1957, a Fourth Class Licence was granted.  Rising through the ranks, he became a First Class Pilot in 1963  and a very successful career of thirty-seven years ensued.  One which he enjoyed enormously and ended when he retired  aged 64 in 1994. So much for the bare statistics but what an interesting man lay behind them. In the 1970’s he led the way and with several of his colleagues chartered yachts on the west coast of Scotland for a number of years.  They liked to think of themselves as the scourge of the Hebrides.  Trevor also had a Private Pilot’s Licence for light aircraft and there are many anecdotes that could be told of that activity, some of them quite hair-raising.  He gave twenty-seven years to the Redcar Lifeboat Station, twenty-one of those as Chairman of the Management Committee receiving a Silver Badge in recognition.  He wrote two books, the first about his time as an Apprentice and the second about his time as a Pilot.  Apart from being a good read the books illustrate quite clearly that Trevor was a shrewd observer, that he had a way with words, a keen sense of humour and the ability to capture a situation with a sketch.  His passion was classical music, but he also enjoyed his cars, travel, football on T.V. and John Wayne films. His family was all-important.  He married Kathleen in 1960 and three children, Robert, Louise and Susan followed.  They, together with their families including the  grandchildren, are giving Kathleen a huge amount of support in her and their loss. He will also be sadly missed by the colleagues he worked with and among his many, many friends.

John Johnston.  (Retired Tees Bay Pilot)