John Walker grave (29th May 1781 to 1st May 1859)

For many centuries people struggled to light fires for cooking, heating and lighting. Transformation arrived with the friction match and here I am above the bones of the man who invented them. The church and cemetery in Norton are picturesque though this is slightly ruined by the ubiquitous and passing traffic.

John was born locally and left school to be an apprentice to a surgeon. He found he an aversion to the sight of blood and left. He turned to chemistry and went to Durham and York to study. He was 38 by the time he owned a chemist shop on the local high street. In the rear was a workshop where he carried out experiments in creating fire safely. He was 45 when a break-through came from a combustible paste he had made for use in guns. It flared up but did not explode. One day at home he scrapped his mixing stick on the hearth and it "spluttered and caught fire". This paste could be put on the end of thin wood which would carry the flame. The match was born.

A year later he was selling "friction lights" or matches to the public. There was 100 in a tin and a strip of sandpaper to ignite them. They became so popular he started selling them in bulk to the Stockton to Darlington Railway. His fame spread across the country but John did not patent his invention as he thought it would benefit mankind. Human nature isn’t so pretty though and other inventors put patents on their brands of matches and made fortunes. Rival matches called "Lucifers" took hold of the market and John’s business stopped production when he was about fifty years old.

He’d done well though and continued to trade as a chemist. He bought a house in the most desirable part of the town. He sold the business aged 77 and retired but died a year later.

I found his grave after a busy day of grave-hunting in the north east (last one before driving home.) The headstone is busy with names and this one was put here in 1972 (the original one is in a local museum.) It must be gratifying to invent something so integral to human civilization. We’ve always needed food, shelter and the availability of fire. This chap was a seminal contributor. Good stuff. I did a salute and left.