Charles William BAKER

Captain Charles William Baker was born at Queensville, Ontario, on 4 September 1872. A contemporary Toronto newspaper account records that his family moved to Lambeth, Ontario, when he was twelve and later to London, Ontario. He graduated from the Ontario Veterinary College in 1892 and eventually established himself as a veterinary surgeon in Toronto.

Baker left Toronto on 4 February 1915 as a Lieutenant and served overseas for nearly two years. Contemporary reports state that he worked through a number of veterinary hospitals in France and was later attached to artillery. After returning to Canada for about two months’ leave, he went back to France, was promoted Captain and transferred to the Canadian service.

His death resulted not from enemy action but from an accident involving the animal on which he was riding. A Toronto newspaper reported that on 21 December 1916 his horse stumbled in a hole and fell on him, breaking his leg. By 23 December his wife, Gertrude, had been informed that he was seriously injured and had been admitted to hospital at Etaples. He was subsequently transferred to the 1st London General Hospital. As late as 5 January he wrote home that the leg was improving, but he died on 10 January 1917.

The Canadian Virtual War Memorial records Baker as a Captain of the Canadian Army Veterinary Corps and gives his wife as Gertrude Hooper, formerly Baker, of 34 Earl Grey Road, Toronto. The contemporary death notice adds that he left four children. It also provides a glimpse of the civilian man behind the uniform: he had belonged to the Brotherhood of Jones Avenue Baptist Church, the Foresters and the Masonic order.

Baker is buried in Nunhead (All Saints) Cemetery, London. Veterans Affairs Canada has preserved his portrait, grave marker and several contemporary Toronto newspaper clippings, making his page unusually well documented.