Educated at Upper Glenwood and Durban High Schools.

Cecil Cowley (cousin) records Walter was in charge of a company called Cowley and Iles that cleared the bush from Avoca to Umgeni and sold the timber to the railway company stacking it at the side of the track so the engine driver could pick it up when he needed to.

In 1889 when William Cowley died in whose business Walter and his brother Percy had been key figures, they stayed on at "Fairford" and in the business of farming and transport riding.

In 1901 on the loss of his wife Bertha he went to Madagascar to buy hump-backed cattle (Malundas) and in his absence "Rogers" ruined the businees. He went to the Bank and gave them everything he'd still got ,was given a clean receipt and £200 to start again in the transport riding business. Cecil said "He then went to Gobles, at Upper Tongaat, where there was a very good looking girl called Ethel Featonby-Smith. He said to her " Ethel, I'm broke, I've got 5 children, I'm just going to make a new start in Zululand, a country where there's fever, a wild country. I'm going to make a frsh start under dreadful circumstances - will you marry me?" They moved up after the birth of their first son in 1905.

He became a pioneer of sugar growing and processing in Zululand.

Addresses in 1933 were 193, North Ridge Road, Durban and Entumeni, Zululand.

Managing Director, Entumeni Sugar Milling Co. (Pty) Ltd. Member of the Durban Club. Foundation member of the Durban Country Club. Supporter of the South African Party.