Col. George Baker

1794 January 8th, born at Bayfordsbury, Hertfordshire, the 7th son of William Baker, Esq., M.P., of Bayfordbury'.

George was the brother of Captain T.R. Baker.

Iberian Peninsular War 1808-1814 (this was to play a major part in Napoleon's downfall)

• 1809 15 year old George received his appointment as a cornet, carrying the troop standard. [Cornet was originally the third and lowest grade of commissioned officer in a British cavalry troop, after captain and lieutenant. Abolished in 1871, it is equivalent to today's Second Lieutenant]
• 15 August 1811 - 16 year old George Baker served as an Ensign of 16th Lancers .
• July 17 1812 - At Castrejon, as a junior Subaltern, he joined the 16th Light Dragoons (later the 16th/5th Lancers and now the Queen’s Royal Lancers. He did not stay long with the Regiment, being captured three months later:
• In the Battle of Venta del Pozo on 23 October 1812, an Anglo-German force led by Major-General Stapleton Cotton fought a rear-guard action against French cavalry under Major-Generals Jean-Baptiste Curto and Pierre Boyer. At Torquemada on October 24 1812 Lieutenant George Baker was taken prisoner by the French. He was exchanged 2 years later.
• Received Peninsula Medal with 2 Clasps

[Source: " The diary of a cavalry officer in the Peninsular and Waterloo Campaign, 1809 ...By William Tomkinson )] -

• 1815, June 18 - fought at Waterloo as an Ensign, aged 21, and was awarded the medal.

(The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday, 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of The Netherlands.)

1822 Papers of Lieutenant George Baker are held at the Bodleian Library, Oxford (together with papers of  Dr. Clement John Baker)

Married at Clare Church, Suffolk, 27 Feb. 1824

Caroline Julia, dau. of Col. John Barker, Proprietor of Clare Priory, Clare, Suffolk.

They had issue :-

• 3 daughters (one was Evelyn) and 6 sons, of whom
• the eldest son was in Regt 5-9th Pty,
• one son was at Sandhurst,
• George was at school and the
• next young sons were at school. (Source: Emily Hills' handwritten family tree)

1826 Daughter Julia born.

1827 copies of a 'memorial' from Baker to the Duke of Wellington, 1827, and of a letter from him to Lord Palmerston in 1836 are part of the Baker Collection in the Bodleaian Library, Oxford.

1830 he was appointed H.B.M. Commissioner for determining the boundary between Greece and Turkey.

 The Bodleaian Library Baker Collection has letters from the Foreign Office Ministers to George Baker:

• Nov. 1830, the Earl of Aberdeen
• Nov. 1830-1834, Lord Palmerston
• 1835, the Duke of Wellington

1841 Census for Clare Priory, Parish of Clare, Suffolk, England

• Caroline Barker 70 Independent Means, (Widow, Mother/Grandmother)
• George Baker 45 Army H.P. - born c. 1796
• Caroline Baker 35 - born c. 1806
• Charlotte Baker 12 - born early 1829
• George Baker 11 - born Oct 1829
• William Baker 10 - born c. 1831
• Edward Baker 4 - born c. 1837
• John Baker 2 - born c. 1839
• N K (Not Known) 3 Mo - born c. 1841 (actually Francis Baker - see 1851 Census)

For his work, received the Greek Order of the Redeemer

1847, Sep 20 - Letter from George, mailed from his mother's home - Bayford House, Cambridge - where he was for her 88th birthday - to Captain Hills, R.N. in Cambridge,

concerning pain at their (his and Caroline) leaving "with so many causes of distress to your family circle both at Ashen and at Cambridge", asking him to inform them "how Diana is going on" and "Lydia".

===1849 Leased 31 Grosvenor Place, Bath,===

(Copy of lease with Baker collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford)

===1851 Census for Clare Priory, Parish of Clare, Suffolk===

1859: Death of Col. George Baker at Bath 22 Dec. 1859

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Bodleian Library, University of Oxford has the Papers of Colonel George and Mrs. Caroline Julia Baker, 1809-57:

• Abstract: Papers of Colonel George and Mrs. Caroline Julia Baker, 1809-1857, mainly relating to the period of Colonel Baker's office as British representative on the Greek Boundary Commission.