Frank Baker (cricketer)

Frank Adam Conyers Baker OBE (6 December 1889 – 17 March 1961), given name also as Francis, was an Anglo-Irish Royal Navy officer and first-class cricketer.

Frank Baker
Personal information
Full nameFrank Adam Conyers Baker
Born6 December 1889
Bansha, Ireland
Died17 March 1961(1961-03-17) (aged 71)
Witley, Surrey, England
BattingUnknown
Career statistics
Competition First-class
Matches 1
Runs scored 34
Batting average 17.00
100s/50s –/–
Top score 28
Catches/stumpings –/–
Source: Cricinfo, 17 September 2019

Life

He was born at Bansha in County Tipperary in December 1889.[1] He was baptised the following year in Argentina, on 24 October 1890, by the Rev. Robert Allen, as Francis Adam Conyers Baker, recorded as the son of Arthur Conyers Baker and Mary Abercrombie Baker, his father being owner of an estancia, domiciled at Estancia San Juan, Tala, Entre Ríos Province.[2] His brother Arthur William Hay Conyers-Baker (born 1891) and father Arthur Conyers Baker (1845–1928), the rancher in Argentina, were both educated at Marlborough College.[3]

Baker entered the Britannia Royal Naval College in 1905.[4] After graduating from Britannia, he served aboard HMS Argyll. He was commended by Italy with a medal with diploma for his services in the aftermath of the 1908 Messina earthquake. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in October 1913.[5] Baker served in the First World War with the Royal Navy, serving aboard several ships and being mentioned in dispatches in December 1918.[6]

In October 1920, Baker was promoted to the rank of lieutenant commander.[7] In February 1921, he was decorated by the president of Portugal, António José de Almeida, with the Military Order of Aviz.[8] He was promoted to the rank of commander in June 1926.[9] Baker fell ill in 1935, requiring hospitalisation at Royal Hospital Haslar, with it being several months before he was declared fit.[4]

Baker retired from active service, at his own request, in June 1936.[4] In 1937 he was Coastguard Inspector for the East Anglian region.[10] He was made an OBE in the 1949 New Year Honours,[11] and died in March 1961 at Witley, Surrey.[1]

Cricket

Following the war, Baker made a single appearance in first-class cricket when he was selected to play for the Royal Navy against Cambridge University at Fenner's in 1920.[12] Batting twice in the match, he was dismissed for 6 runs by Charles Marriott in the Royal Navy first-innings, while in their second-innings he was dismissed for 28 runs by Gilbert Ashton.[13]

Family

Baker's parents were married in 1881 in New Orleans; Arthur Conyers Baker was given as the seventh son of Colonel George Baker, 16th Lancers, and marrying Mary Abercromby Clayton, daughter of Dr John Clayton of Banff.[14] There were at least four daughters and two sons of the marriage:

  • Mary Honor Caroline Baker married in 1905, at age 23, Gillespie Carew O'Dwyer, from the family residence in Argentina.[15]
  • Dorothy Conyers Baker, the second daughter, married in 1912 Reginald Boys of the Royal Engineers, from 22 Cottesmore Gardens, Kensington, London, as his second wife: they had two sons, and a daughter.[16][17] The daughter, Cicely Margaret Heather Boys, married Donald Albery as his second wife, and was mother of Nicholas Bronson Albery and Tim Albery.[18]
  • Cecily (or Cicely) Joan Baker, the third daughter, married in 1913 Cecil Abercrombie, from 22 Cottesmore Gardens.[19]
  • Frank Baker married in 1915 Gladys Henderson, daughter of Thomas Henderson of Banff, at Turriff. He is given at that time as the elder son, serving on HMS Legion (1914).[20]
  • Angela Mary Baker, married in 1920 Jocelyn Arthur Adair Pickard (1885–1962), a former Royal Engineer who became Director-General of RoSPA.[21][22]

Arthur William Hay Conyers-Baker, born 28 July 1891, was Frank's younger brother, and was commissioned in the North Staffordshire Regiment in 1911. He retired from the Army in 1933.[3][23] In 1937 he was a Chief Constable of the Metropolitan Police.[24] During World War II he worked in the War Office.[25] He committed suicide in 1948.[26]

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References
  1. Frank Baker at ESPNcricinfo
  2. "Bautismos 1883–1893 celebrados en la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina". www.argbrit.org.
  3. College, Marlborough; James, L. Warwick (1952). Marlborough College Register: 1843–1952. The College. p. 94 and 504.
  4. "Conyers Baker, Frank Adam". The National Archives, ID: ADM 196/52/293. Kew: The National Archives. 19 September 2019.
  5. "Navy Lists". National Library of Scotland. p. 170. Retrieved 19 September 2019.
  6. "No. 31060". The London Gazette (Supplement). 10 December 1918. p. 14644.
  7. "No. 32095". The London Gazette. 22 October 1920. p. 10208.
  8. "No. 32216". The London Gazette. 4 February 1921. p. 949.
  9. "No. 14246". The Edinburgh Gazette. 6 July 1926. p. 771.
  10. The Mercantile Navy List and Maritime Directory for 1937 (PDF). 1937. p. xxii.
  11. "No. 38493". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 1948. p. 12.
  12. "First-Class Matches played by Frank Baker". CricketArchive. Retrieved 19 September 2019.
  13. "Cambridge University v Royal Navy, 1920". CricketArchive. Retrieved 19 September 2019.
  14. "Aberdeen Press and Journal". 15 January 1881 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  15. "Concordia, St Thomas: marriages celebrated in Entre Rios between 1900 and 1915, registered in Concordia Anglican Church records, data transcribed from the parish register". www.argbrit.org.
  16. "The Queen". 6 July 1912 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  17. "Page 203 – The-VC-and-DSO-Volume-II". lib.militaryarchive.co.uk.
  18. Trewin, Wendy. "Albery, Sir Donald Arthur Rolleston". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/39920. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  19. "Suffolk and Essex Free Press". 30 April 1913 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  20. "Dublin Daily Express". 29 July 1915 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  21. Trailer – Kerb Drill
  22. "Lieut.-Col. J. A. A. Pickard, CBE DSO" (PDF). The Royal Engineers Journal. LXXVI: 226–7. June 1962.
  23. "(908) – Army lists > Half-yearly Army lists 1923 – Feb 1950 (From 1947, annual, despite the name) > 1939 > Second half – British Military lists – National Library of Scotland". digital.nls.uk.
  24. Metropolitan Police College Journal. 1937. p. 31.
  25. "Militære aspekter af den britiske besættelse af Færøerne 1940–45". tidsskrift.dk (in Danish).
  26. "Fulham Chronicle". 9 July 1948 – via British Newspaper Archive.
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