Walker, William 1824-60
US buccaneer and adventurer

Born in Nashville, Tennessee, he studied medicine, which he practised in the USA, at Edinburgh in Scotland and Heidelberg, Germany, as well as law and journalism. In 1853 he landed with a force in the Mexican state of Lower California, and the following year declared it, with the neighbouring Sonora, an independent republic, but was soon forced to withdraw to US territory. In 1855 he invaded Nicaragua, took Granada, and was elected President. His government, recognized in 1856 by the USA, restored slavery. He published The War in Nicaragua (1860). Twice expelled (1857) from Nicaragua, he entered Honduras in 1860, taking Trujillo, but was apprehended by the captain of a British sloop-of-war and given up to the Honduran authorities, who had him shot.