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Samuel and two generations of his descendants had a long association Budleigh Salterton. His first appearance in the town directories was in 1845 when Mr & Mrs Baker and Family were listed as living on Lawn Terrace (which was probably the present West Terrace).
Census information shows that Samuel was born in Isle Abbotts in Somerset around 1789. In 1822 he married Anna Cox and a financial settlement was made by which he would receive 4% interest on the sum of £7,500 in bank annuities (1). This amounted to £300 a year, a sizable income at the time, and is probably why he was described as “a gentleman” or “fundholder” in census returns. The trustees for this money were John Cox (Anna’s father) and Benjamin Russell Baker. Benjamin may have been Samuel’s father but later a man of that name was a solicitor in Andover and he was more or less Samuel’s age so he may have been a relative.

Samuel and Anna had two sons. The eldest, John Russell Baker, was born in Cheltenham in 1825 and his father Samuel was said to be “of Cheltenham” in John’s entry in the Oxford University Alumni register when he entered Exeter College in 1842; his younger brother Henry Goldney Baker was born in Salterton in 1828 and, according to the same register, when he himself entered Exeter College in 1844 his father was described as “of Salterton”. So it appears that Samuel and Anna lived in Budleigh Salterton from the early 1840s and may have previously lived or stayed temporarily in the town as early as 1825. John Russell Baker had been at the King’s School, Ottery St. Mary before going up to Oxford which suggests the family may actually have been living locally prior to 1842.

The two sons were successful at Oxford. John moved from Exeter College when he was elected a scholar of Lincoln College and graduated BA in 1846; he was called to the Bar in June 1850 and as a barrister practised as an equity draftsman and conveyancer (2). In 1850 John married Maria Frances Borwell in Saint Gerrans Cornwall where her father was the Curate. His younger brother Henry became a solicitor and practised in Axminster until returning to Budleigh Salterton to practise locally (see later).

From 1845 Samuel can be found in the town directories and censuses and from 1856 until his death in 1872 he was at Lawn House in West Terrace. His wife died in 1862 and his son John Russell Baker and his family appear to have immediately moved in with Samuel for a few years. John’s family consisted of a son Arthur and two daughters Eleanor and Alice all at school during this period. Arthur was at Marlborough College and then went on to Exeter College Oxford in 1871; after graduating he took Holy Orders in 1876, becoming Curate of Tormohan in 1880, but he died in San Remo, Italy, in 1885 (3).

In August 1863 John exhibited some “handsome flowers in pots” from his conservatory at Lawn House at the 10th Exhibition of the Budleigh Salterton & Budleigh Garden Society (4, 5) although these seem to have been the handiwork of his gardener Mr George Pile.  In the 1861 (when the family were living in Heavitree), and in subsequent censuses, John described himself as “barrister not in practise”. By 1871 the family had moved to Highweek near Newton Abbot where John died in 1909, his wife Maria having pre-deceased him in 1902.
By 1869 John had been replaced at Lawn House by his brother Henry who is recorded in Morris’ Directory in 1870 as a “Solicitor and Commissioner in all the Courts”. Before moving to Budleigh, Henry had been in practise in Church Street Axminster as a partner in the firm of Bond & Baker. Apart from their usual work, the firm were one of three solicitors for a Bill before Parliament to incorporate a company to build the Axminster, Seaton, and Beer Junction Railway in 1860 (6), an extension from the South Western Railway Company line near Colyton. Henry also acted as Deputy Superintendant Registrar for Births, Deaths, & Marriages for the Axminster area.

Henry had arrived back in Budleigh with his wife Isabel (who he married in Heavitree in 1857), and with two sons and 3 daughters all born in Axminster. Isabel then had a son Samuel Russell born in the town in the late summer of 1869. The eldest son Henry Goldney Baker was educated at All Hallows boarding school in Honiton and in the family tradition then went up to Exeter College in Oxford (more details of his life are recorded later in this article).

Henry Goldney senior worked as a solicitor in the town until his death in 1905. In town Directories he is listed as working in “The Lawn” but Henry Goldney Baker & Son are also listed in the High Street. His son Samuel had been admitted a solicitor in 1896 after studying as an articled clerk in Birmingham and passing the Final Examination that year(7). In 1902 Samuel married Jean Ethel Theobald in Ilfracombe the daughter of William Theobald who had just moved to North Devon after several years in Budleigh Salterton, and had to undertake a rather strange request when his father-in-law died in 1908 (8). Samuel and Ethel were at 5 Westbourne Terrace during their early years in Budleigh but by 1914 they had moved to Westfield in Westfield Road where he died in 1937. As well as being a solicitor he also was a commissioner of oaths and an insurance agent. He was exempted from military service in WW1 as he was the only practising solicitor in the town (9).

Samuel wasn’t the only Baker connection with the town during WW1 because his eldest brother Henry Goldney Baker had moved back in 1909 to the town where he had spent much of his youth, and was living with his wife Edith at Eryl Mor, Victoria Place. Henry had been born in Axminster but moved to Budleigh with his parents (see above). He went to New Zealand in 1885 and farmed for 15 years before taking Holy Orders. He married Edith Luke in 1888. He returned to England in 1906 acting as a Curate at Bovey Tracy for a year. During WW1 he served as a Special Constable and was a private and then corporal in the 5th Battalion Devon Volunteer Regiment (10, 11).
Revd Baker and his wife had 3 children, a daughter Edith and two sons both of whom had military careers, one (E.R.G. Baker), in the Navy, and their first son William Henry Goldney Baker born in Christchurch in December 1888, in the Indian Army. Son William had a very distinguished career after passing out first in his class at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst (12). He was commissioned to the unattached list of the Indian Army in 1909 and posted to the 31st Duke of Connaught’s Own Lancers. In 1915 he was sent to France and attached to the 34th Poona Horse. He then moved to the Cheshire Regiment being promoted a temporary Major in May 1916. Baker was promoted to acting lieutenant-colonel on appointment as acting commanding officer of the 1st battalion of the Cheshire Regiment on 22 August 1916 and awarded the DSO.  He was also mentioned in despatches three times.

He was promoted to brevet major on 1 January 1918 and to acting major in the Indian Army on 3 February 1918 while temporary second in command of the 31st Duke of Connaught's Own Lancers. Now back in India he took part in the operations against the Marri tribes in Baluchistan (in present day Pakistan) between 18 February and 8 April 1918; he then took part In the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919 and was mentioned in despatches.
After further jobs in India he was attached to the Department of the Chief of the General Staff in Australia in 1924. He returned to India and had number of jobs. He was also mentioned in despatches for his service in operations in Waziristan for the period 25 November 1936 to 16 January 1937.

During WW2 he was appointed aide-de-camp to the King on 1 April 1940 but returned in July to India to become Director of Organization at Army Headquarters. He became Deputy Adjutant General before becoming Adjutant-General India on 24 October 1941. He was promoted to the substantive rank of lieutenant general on 16 August 1942 and he had been made a Companion of the Order of the Bath in January 1941. He retired in June 1944 and was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire. He lived in Thorverton and died in hospital at Exminster on 28 December 1964.

Researched and Written by Roger Lendon, October © 2014

(1)  The Law Times Reports  Volume 7
(2)  Men at the Bar  Joseph Foster 1885
(3)  Oxford University Alumni lists
(4)  7 August 1863, Western Times          
(5)  See OVApedia entry for information about the Garden Society
(6)  Morning Chronicle Newspaper Archive: November 14, 1860
(7)  The Solicitors' Journal - Volume 81  1937 and 1891 census
(8)  See William Theobald’s OVApedia entry
(9)  Budleigh Salterton Tribunal reported in the  Western Times  08 October 1918
(10)  BLAIN BIOGRAPHICAL DIRECTORY of Anglican clergy in the South
(11) Exeter and Plymouth Gazette  Tuesday 26 May 1931 
(12) Wikipedia entry for Lieutenant-General Sir William Henry Goldney Baker KCIE, CB, DSO, OB

BS-B-00068 Biography