Roderick Walker

Brigadier Walker died peacefully on 15 October 2008 at the age of 76 after a long illness. His funeral took place at Dunning Parish Church on 26 October 2008.

In March 1979, Walker married Susette Mary Aitchison and they raised two sons; Duncan Stewart Aitchison and Roderick James Craw at their home in the village of Dunning, Strathearn, Scotland, their second son Angus John Roderick had died in infancy.

On 16 September 1963, an organised mob of several thousand demonstrators formed in the city of Djakarta, they sacked the Malaysian Embassy before marching on the British Embassy where Becke and Walker were on guard, they tore down the Union Jack and burnt the Ambassadors car, then threw stones and pieces of concrete through the fence breaking all the embassy windows. In what is now a legendary act Walker strode up and down in front of the building, dodging the missiles and relentlessly playing his bagpipes despite pleas from the police and the leader of the demonstrators, eventually the mob broke up and the battle was won.

By the 1960s, Walker, by then a Major had been assigned to serve under Lieutenant Colonel Bill Becke as a member of the two-man Military Attaché at the British Embassy in Djakarta, Indonesia.

Walker was commissioned into the Sherwood Foresters in 1952, where he served for a short period before being transferred to the Intelligence Corps, from there he joined 22 Special Air Service Regiment as a Troop Commander. Early in his career he made his name as an Army Officers Boxing Champion and an expert parachutist.

Brigadier Roderick "Rory" Muir Bamford Walker OBE MC (27 February 1932 – 15 October 2008) was a British SAS Commander, best known for his heroism during the Oman Uprising and the Indonesian Confrontation. He is also well remembered as a skilled bagpipe player.

Walker was born 27 February 1932 in Sutton Coldfield, the son of Roderick Noel Duncan Walker, a solicitor, and his wife Doris Margaret Walker (née Greensill). He grew up at the family home on Green Lanes, Wylde Green and was educated at Cheltenham College and RMA Sandhurst

The kingdom of Muscat and Oman had been a British Protectorate since 1891 and by the 1950s was ruled by Sultan Said bin Taimur, who by the late 1950s was facing serious opposition and uprisings from the imam of Oman. Britain helped Taimur to suppress the imam's first revolt in 1955, however this caused resentment from Saudi Arabia and Egypt who then backed the imam's second revolt in 1958.