Tributes paid to DIY market and store trader

A Wakefield city centre market trader and shop owner of more than 30 years died on Christmas Day at the age of 71.
Husband and father George Walker.Husband and father George Walker.
Husband and father George Walker.

George Walker, of Warburton, Emley, passed away after being diagnosed with lung cancer in August.

Mr Walker owned George’s Tools Limited on Union Street for before handing the business over to his only daughter Zena.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

She said: “The shop was always set up for me every morning. He was not one of those people who could sit at home and not do anything.”

After leaving school in Skelmanthorpe, Mr Walker went to work on a farm in Emley before driving tankers with the Sykes company.

During the 1984-5 miner’s strike, Mr Walker’s wife Patricia, who he married in 1975, set up a second hand stall. Mr Walker drove her there – and became a trader for life.

He started buying second hand tools and building up a number of stalls, his first being in the corner of the old Wakefield market.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

After some years he got a unit outside the fish and meat market, where he traded until Trinity Walk was built.

This was when he leased a shop to create George’s Tools, which he ran until he was 65.

Mr Walker is survived by his wife Patricia, daughter Zena and her partner Patrick, stepson Martin and his wife Theresa and granddaughter Vicky.

His packed funeral was on Tuesday at St Michael’s Church in Emley before a service at Wakefield Crematorium.

Related topics: