William Walker (1869–1918) was an English diver famous for shoring up the southern and eastern sides of Winchester Cathedral. Early life He was born William Robert Bellenie, in Newington, Surrey, England, in 1869. Around 1900, he adopted the name William Bellenie-Walker, eventually dropping the Bellenie part to be known as Walker. Diving career In 1887, Walker began diver training at Portsmouth Dockyard. He worked through the roles of diver's attendant and diver's signal man, passing his medical exam and deep-water test to qualify as a deep-water diver in 1892. In his time, William Walker was the most experienced diver of Siebe Gorman Ltd. Between 1906 and 1911, working in water up to a depth of six metres (20 feet), he shored up Winchester Cathedral, using more than 25,800 bags of concrete, 114,900 concrete blocks, and 900,000 bricks. Winchester Cathedral Before his work, the cathedral had been in imminent danger of collapse as it sank slowly into the ground, which consisted of peat. To enable bricklayers to build supporting walls, the groundwater level had to be lowered. Normally, the removal of the groundwater would have caused the collapse of the building. So, to give temporary support to the foundation walls, some 235 pits were dug along the southern and eastern sides of the building, each about six metres deep. Walker went down and shored up the walls by putting concrete underneath them. He worked six hours a day—in complete darkness, because the sediment suspended in the water was impenetrable to light. After Walker finished his work, the groundwater was pumped out and the concrete he had placed bore the foundation walls. Conventional bricklayers then were able to do their work in the usual way and restore the damaged walls. During the latter part of his time working at Winchester, Walker cycled home, 70 miles to South Norwood, at weekends returning by train on the Monday. To celebrate the completion of the work, a thanksgiving service, led by the Archbishop of Canterbury, was held on 15 July 1912. At this, Walker was presented with a silver rose bowl by King George V. Newspaper reports at the time remarked that this was the second time Walker had met George V, the first being when the king was a naval cadet and Walker was his diving instructor. Later, Walker was honoured by being appointed a Member of the Royal Victorian Order (MVO). An interview