Valentine Baker

Valentine Baker

Valentine Baker , also known as Baker Pasha , (* 1827 in Enfield , † November 17, 1887 in Tel-el-Kebir in Egypt ) was a British officer and Ottoman-Egyptian general .

Youth and first appearances

Valentine Baker was a younger brother of the African explorer Sir Samuel White Baker . He comes from the family of a wealthy merchant with branches in Jamaica and Mauritius . At the age of 21 he went to Ceylon with his brothers John and Samuel , where he ran a large farm in Nuwara Eliya . Valentine Baker quickly realized that he didn't want to work as a farmer. He therefore began his military career in 1848 when he entered the Ceylon Rifles . Four years later he was transferred to the 13th Lancers , a regiment of the British Army . He fought 1852–53 with distinction in the so-called Kaffir War and then from 1855 in the Crimean War . In 1859 Baker moved to the 10th Hussar Regiment. The following year, as a lieutenant colonel , he was given command of this regiment at the age of 33. During this time he wrote a number of books on the organization of the British cavalry and other military science subjects. He led his own regiment to great efficiency. In 1873 he retired from active military service and made a trip to Persia and Afghanistan , which he described in his work Clouds in the East (London 1876). Upon his return to the UK, Baker became Deputy Quartermaster General in Aldershot .

Baker was convicted on August 2, 1875, of having "done violence" to a young woman in a train compartment. For this he received a year imprisonment and a 500 pound sterling fine. His career and reputation were ruined. He had to retire from the British Army .

In the Ottoman Empire

In 1877 Baker entered the service of the Ottoman Empire , for whose army he fought in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877. On December 31, 1877, as a subordinate of Sakir Pasha , he could not prevent the Russians under Gurko from breaking through at the position of Tashkese . During this time he held the rank of Ferik ( Lieutenant General ) with the title of Pasha . He published a history of the campaign in his book The War in Bulgaria (2 vols. 1879). After the war he was transferred to Armenia , where he stayed until 1882.

In the course of the occupation of Egypt by British troops under General Wolseley in 1882 during the Urabi uprising , the Egyptian army was crushed at the Battle of Tel-el-Kebir . It was then rebuilt under the command of a British Commander in Chief, the Sirdar . Baker was also offered a command in this army. When he arrived in Cairo , however, the position offered was no longer available, presumably because of the verdict against him seven years ago. That is why he was tasked with setting up the gendarmerie .

In Sudan

In Sudan , which came under the rule of the Ottoman viceroys (Khedives) of Egypt from 1821, the Mahdi uprising broke out in 1881 . Since all available Egyptian army units were destroyed in the battle of Sheican and the British government was not ready to get involved, the Egyptian gendarmerie under their leader Baker was sent to Sawakin on the Red Sea . He was supposed to beat the general of the Mahdists Osman Digna and build a stage road from Sawakin to Berber on the Nile . On December 27th, Baker reached Sawakin with 3,600 men. In early February he advanced against Tokar , but was completely defeated by Osman Digna the following day in the First Battle of El Teb . Baker escaped to Suakin with the survivors. Since the port of Suakin should also be held during an evacuation of Sudan, the British government decided to send troops. After the arrival of British reinforcements under Gerald Graham , Baker led an attack at the Second Battle of El Teb on February 29 at the head of his old 10th Hussar Regiment and was seriously wounded.

After this campaign, he again took command of the Egyptian police. He returned to Great Britain but made another trip to Egypt in 1887, during which he died in Tel-el-Kebir on November 17th.

literature

• Anne Baker: A Question of Honor: The Life Of Lieutenant General Valentine Baker Pasha. Barnsley, South Yorkshire: Pen & Sword Paperbacks, 1996. ISBN 0-85052-496-2
• Michael Barthorp: BLOOD-RED DESERT SAND The British Invasions of Egypt and the Sudan 1882-98 , Cassell Military Trade Books, ISBN 0-304-36223-9

Web links

Commons : Valentine Baker  - collection of images, videos and audio files

swell

1. ^ Vogelsberger, Slatin Pascha (Vlg Styria 1992) 104.