Captain Frederic John ‘Johnny’ Walker, C B, DSO and three bars, RN was the most famous escort commander to be based at Liverpool during the war and the most successful ever in anti-submarine warfare.
His career until the outbreak of the war had been fairly ordinary. He joined the navy in 1913 and proved to be a very able cadet. He saw active service in the First World War. In the inter-war period he was in the then unfashionable area of anti-submarine warfare. He became one of the few specialists in this field.
In 1940 he was appointed Operations Staff Officer to Admiral Ramsey and in October 1941 he became commander of the 36th Escort Group raising his flag in the sloop HMS Stork, whose home base was in Gladstone docks.
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 2nd Escort Group |
The 36th Escort Group was initially engaged in escorting Gibraltar - bound convoys during which Walker trained the convoy escorts to act as a team. | 
