Profiles
The Wilshere family photograph part of the Wilshere Collection
Will Walker
Will Walker was a keen photographer and a prodigious collector of old photographs. He would advertise locally for photographs or pictures and for many years he toured the village streets copying borrowed pictures and turning them into slides.
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One Saturday morning, Will was heard on Radio Leicester making his request for any old photographs of Kirby Muxloe. The interview was heard by Joe Moore, who duly responded. The two met and struck up a friendship which lasted for many years, and as Will did not drive, Joe would take him around the county so that he could take photographs, often to Bradgate Park.
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It is thanks to Will Walker's interest in photography and village history, that we have so many photographs of Kirby today.
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When Kirby Muxloe History Group obtained Will's slides, they were converted into photographs, and many of them can be seen at events and exhibitions.
We owe a debt of gratitude to Will Walker's family for allowing us to use these pictures.
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A cutting from the local press with a request for photographs of Kirby Muxloe
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Will Walker
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Jonathan Wilshere 1936-1995
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Jonathan Edward Owen Wilshere was born in Kirby Muxloe, his family lived at Greenways, Gullet Lane which was a fine Arts and Crafts house, sadly demolished some years ago. He was educated at Rugby School. His early career was in the insurance business and he was elected a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Insurance in 1960.
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In 1970, he branched out and took over the Chamberlin's Music Shop in Leicester. Around the same time, he formed the Leicester Research Services and by 1974, he was a founder member of the Leicestershire and Rutland Family History Society.
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His special interests led him to become the daily weather correspondent for the Leicester Mercury for many years and, as a keen supporter of Leicestershire County Cricket Club, to provide the statistics for the Club's Year books.
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Jonathan was well-known locally as a much respected local historian, researching his own extensive family background, before the advent of computers and Ancestry/ Find My Past etc. He wrote many articles and books about Kirby Muxloe and L.F.E. together with other subjects relating to Leicestershire. He was also a keen photographer and many of the contemporary photographs in the Will Walker Collection were acknowledged by Will to have been provided by Jonathan.
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Many of Jonathan's books are available to view in local libraries. Some of his books are still available through Amazon and Heart of Albion Press.
Thanks to Jonathan's son, Andrew, many of the books are available free to use and can be downloaded from http://www.andrewwilshere.com/jeow
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Leicester Weather Sayings
by Jonathan Wilshere
Will Walker
Glenfield by Jonathan Wilshere