Background
He was born in Edinburgh. In his second year he was attacked by a "nervous fever" by which he permanently lost the faculty of hearing, but through the careful attention of his father he was enabled to obtain a good education.
He was born in Edinburgh. In his second year he was attacked by a "nervous fever" by which he permanently lost the faculty of hearing, but through the careful attention of his father he was enabled to obtain a good education.
In the 1830s Walter was living with his father, Archibald Geikie, a hairdresser and perfumer, at 2 Drummond Street in the south side of the city. Owing to his want of feeling for color, Geikie was not a successful painter in oils, but he sketched in India ink with great truth and humor the scenes and characters of Scottish lower-class life in his native city. A series of etchings which exhibit very high excellence were published by him in 1829-1831 and a collection of eighty-one of these was republished posthumously in 1841, with a biographical introduction by Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, Baronet.
He died on 1 August 1837 and was buried in an unmarked grave in Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh but a memorial was erected to his memory on the western boundary wall in 1996.