Henry James Walker

Henry James Walker was born in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. His father Mark Walker owned a butchers shop in the town, called 'Walker and Son's in 1824.
Mark and Henry moved to Leicester to set up a new butchers shop in the 1880s. Their speciality was pork pies. However, during World War II meat became scarce and production dramatically reduced. In 1947 they started looking at alternate products initially frying potatoes to make crisps. Walkers crisps was founded in 1948 by Henry.
The Walkers brand was named after Henry Walker. Walker snack foods is the largest seller of savoury snacks in the United Kingdom with a market share of 17.1% in 2025. The Walkers factory in Leicester is the largest crisp production plant in the world, which produces 11 million bags of crisps a day.