RUDYARD Kipling's 'If' was a rather fitting poem for Jack Walker to hang on the wall of his Blackburn office.

His favourite verse spoke of those who came out on top whatever life threw at them and in business Jack did come out on top more often than not. The lad from the Blackburn back streets who failed his 11-plus rose to be one of Britain's most successful industrialists ever.

And like the reference in 'If' Jack was very much a man who could keep his head when those around him were losing theirs.

Few businessmen of his generation could match his ability when it came to making money.

His investments were largely funded by the fortune the family received from the sale of the Walkersteel business -- cannily conducted when the market was at its peak -- and which had been built up from a back street garage into one of Europe's largest privately owned firms.

While the Jack Walker story was not quite rags to riches, it was certainly one of a working class lad who fought his way to the very top.

He and brother Fred (pictured in their younger days) were brought up in terraced homes in Randal Street and later Providence Street, Little Harwood, and schooled at Bangor Street secondary modern.

Jack served his apprenticeship as a sheetmetal worker, his brother as a precision toolmaker.

The Walkersteel story began in 1945 when a teenage Jack began working with his father Charles. With the princely sum of £80, dad had started a tiny sheet metal working and car repair business in a back street workshop.

By 1950 turnover was £6,000 a year. National Service in the Army took Jack away from the business for a couple of years while brother Fred returned from his stint with the Merchant Navy to join the firm. Their father died in 1951 and after Jack returned home from the forces he and his brother began building the business up.

By the mid-1950s it had moved into steel stockholding after the brothers had realised that buying and selling steel on commission was a good earner.

In the first year they handled 1,000 tons. New premises were found in Paterson Street and machinery installed to process steel. The business grew rapidly, acquiring more premises in Hall Street and Walker Street. Jack was very much the salesman and dealmaker of the partnership; Fred keeping the shopfloor in check.

In 1970 the firm decided to centralize its operations under one roof and a 54-acre site at Guide was bought to base a giant warehouse measuring one million square feet.

By 1989 the firm was market-leader with 3,400 employees in 60 locations across the UK and Ireland and sales of £623million.

In October that year -- when the brothers were approaching retirement age -- they decided to sell up. The £330million they got from British Steel -- Jack was credited with securing a price at the very top of market expectations -- was the biggest ever fetched from a private company sale.

Leaving the steel business gave Jack more time to spend at the family home in Jersey.

After several trips to the island on holiday Jack and second wife Barbara had decided to move there from Osbaldeston in 1974 with Michaela and Ross, the youngest of his four children. They bought Rosedale Farm, on Mount Cochon two miles away from the island's capital St Helier, for £233,000 and Jack soon took to the relaxed life.

"There is not the hustle and bustle here that you get in Blackburn and the children are very happy," he observed at the time.

One of the criteria the Jersey authorities set on allowing outsiders to settle is that they will make a positive contribution to life on the island.

During his time on Jersey, Jack -- known there as Johnny -- certainly achieved that.

A chance discussion with the postman who delivered to Rosedale led to Jack becoming involved in First Tower United, the island football club which Jack helped finance.

The airline that bore the island's name until it was recently changed also benefited from the Walker touch.

Jersey European was launched in 1979 and in 1983 was taken over by the Walkersteel Group, which already owned Blackpool-based charter airline Spacegrand, in a deal worth over seven figures.

The two airlines ran separately for a time until they were combined within the Walker Aviation group in 1985. Plans to float the airline, recenty renamed British European, on the stock market are currently on ice -- but when it does happen, estimates suggest it will add another £100million to the Walker estate.

The Walker family fortune has been estimated at well in excess of £500million -- but many believe that could be a serious under-estimate.