Walter was born 24th April 1864; most of his life he worked as a Railwayman with the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway.

He didn’t receive much of an education, but he was an avid reader. Apart from some unofficial teaching from an elderly woman in his very early childhood, Walter when he was eight years old attended a class run by a local master for a few months. After which he was sent out to work to help support his family, at a local rope maker in Rothwell where the family then resided. A year later the family moved to Normanton, and Walter was able to return to school for a further nine months. This then was the total of Walter’s education.  

Little is known of his early adult occupations. But in 1884 he married Eliza Chapell ( in many of his works he call’s Eliza "Betsy") and for a while they lived in Sharlston, a pit village between Wakefield and Featherstone. Walter found employment at the local colliery working the giant coke ovens.

They then returned to Normanton, when Walter started work for the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway at the very bottom as a cleaner. Where characteristically he applied himself, first becoming a fireman, then at the age of thirty five he passed his drivers exam and became a engine driver. Which he continued until his retirement age sixty five.   

He first began writing by submitting articles to the Railway Review. Then in 1905 published, on his own account, a book of poems entitled "Songs of the Line". Which brought him to the attention of publisher W.Nicholson & Sons. Nicholson's were the publishers for John Hartley, the well-known Yorkshire dialect author and compiler of the Old Clock Almanack.  

So in 1911, Nicholson published Walter’s best known work. "TYKES’ ABROOAD" (that is the correct spelling) written in full dialect it is a semi fictional account of a journey by 3 Yorkshire men from Normanton to Normandy in France. It is a gem from cover to cover. It’s very humorous, absurd, political, and socially aware, with beautiful poetry.

On the death of John Hartley in 1917 Walter took over the editorship of the Clock Almanack and made it his own. Which he continued until his own death in 1932. He also supported and contributed articles under the pseudonym "Casey" to the fledgling Labour Party.

Walter was also a talented writer in the Kings English. In 1918 he wrote an account of a cycling holiday in Wharfedale, titled "AWHEEL IN WHARFELAND". Which is both a travelogue and a potted history of the area.   He has three other published works:-

"PRIVATE JOB MUGGLESTONE" published 1916, a lighter look at life in the trenches, which proved to be very popular with the men who were experiencing the horrors of the trenches. Copies of this book are now very rare, because so many were sent to and lost in the trenches of the First World War.  

"WONDERING MINSTREL I" written under the name "Casey", I believe this is a collection of political sketches.  

And "ROOMIN I' ROOAM, FLIRTIN I' FLORENCE, VOYIGIN I' VENICE". An account of his travels in Italy. Published after his death in 1934.

Astonishingly as well as working full time as a engine driver, which would have meant shift work and many of his nights boarding away from home, he did much of his writing in a tent pitched on his back lawn. The couple had seven children, plus two who died in infancy yet he managed to find time to get deeply involved in the local trades union movement. Becoming The Normanton Branch Secretary of the National Union of Railwaymen. He was responsible for gaining a three shillings a day rise for his Normanton colleagues, winning compensation for injured railwaymen, and improving conditions.   

He was a prominent force in the drive to give Normanton its own library to the point of going door to door with a collection box (see his history of Normanton available on this site). 

He was also an authority on his favorite poet, Robert Burns, as such Walter was in demand as a Burns night speaker.   He was an extensive traveller at a time when foreign holidays were unheard of for the working class. He visited France, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy where he claimed to have had a chat with the Pope, which as far fetched as it may sound, I could believe of this very resourceful man. Only a few weeks before his death plans were well advanced for a trip to Jerusalem.

He was also well known locally for a column he wrote in the Normanton Advertiser, in which he would organise walking parties to the Dales and the such then write about them. 

Walter was very proud of his hometown of Normanton, and in 1928 he spent several months writing a history of the town. At first published as a series of articles in a local paper. But to the best of my knowledge it was never published as a book. I have only seen a manuscript of the book. So as it is now out of copyright, and I know from his comments at the end of the book it was his dearest wish to have it published. I now do so here.

Walter Hampson died from cancer at the age 67 at home in his beloved Normanton on the 9th Feb 1932 his funeral was attended by many, including members of the Yorkshire Dialect Society, and his great friend the MP and minister for mines Sir Ben Turner.   Normanton is proud of Walter for his Headstone in Normanton Churchyard stands out above others, and is well cared for. But his works are mostly forgotten now especially beyond Yorkshire. Which is a loss, I’ve discovered his wit, humour, poetry, and humanity. I hope you do too.