Mary Walker
From Arthur Ransome Wiki
Mary Walker, mother of the Swallows and usually addressed by them as Mother is also known as the best of all natives. She is also called Mummy in Secret Water, probably due to the presence of ship's baby Bridget Walker as a main character.
[edit] Early life
Mary was born in Australia where horse-riding and sailing were features of her childhood. Mary grew up (confusingly) both on a sheep station (SA18), and close to Sydney Harbour:
- “I wonder whether the real Queen Elizabeth knew much about ships” said Titty. That Queen Elizabeth was not brought up close to Sydney Harbour” said mother (SA2).
- ...sailing in Sydney Harbour when she was a little girl. (SA16)
- recalling when she capsized my cousin's dinghy in Sydney Harbour when she tried to hang on too long; John cheered up and wondered if it ever happened to Daddy too, though he doesn't suppose so. (SD8).
(As any good Australian knows, the sheep stations are all a long way from Sydney: the two statements of where Mary spent her childhood can be reconciled if, for example, her family home was a sheep station but she attended a boarding school in Sydney.)
- She also refers to
She has memories of droughts, the "Blackfellows"ref req, little brown bears (koalas) and returning home asleep on horseback after a dance (WD2).
She has been to New Zealand as she says that the big trout, "two pounds if he's an ounce", that Roger and Titty catch at Swallowdale is "the biggest trout she had ever seen in England, though she had seen much bigger in Australia and New Zealand" (SD15).
[edit] Adult life
Mary's move to England is not described in the books. Mary married Ted Walker, an officer of the Royal Navy. Mary spent time at Malta and Gibraltar (SA18); as these were both Royal Navy ports this was presumably because Ted had been stationed there. Mary and Ted later had five children:
[edit] lesser facts
Unlike Queen Elizabeth (the first), Mary does not have red hair (SA2)
