Frank George Baker

Appears as: Born: Parents: Unit: No.: Rank: Died: Grave/Memorial:

Baker, Frank G 1896 Alfred & Mary Ann (née Daborn) 1st Surrey Brigade, Royal Army Service Corps T.1525 Private/Driver 31 August 1915, Royal Tunbridge Wells, age 19 Kent and Sussex Cemetery, Royal Tunbridge Wells: Section C 14 Grave 404

Biography:
Frank George Baker was born on 20th November 1896 in Prey Heath near Worplesdon, Surrey.  His parents were Alfred Baker, a nursery labourer, and
Mary Ann (née Daborn) and Frank was the fifth of their nine children.

On leaving school, Frank got a job in a factory as an ‘accumulator’ [a person who was employed to collect payments].

Frank volunteered for the Territorial Force and became a driver with the 1st Surrey Brigade, Royal Army Service Corps. Frank died on 31st August 1915, in hospital at Royal Tunbridge Wells, from ‘cerebral complications’.  He is buried in the Kent and Sussex Cemetery, Royal Tunbridge Wells.

The Territorial Force was a part-time volunteer component of the British Army, created in 1908 to augment British land forces without resorting to conscription.  The new organisation consolidated the 19th-century Volunteer Force and yeomanry into a unified auxiliary, commanded by the War Office and administered by local county territorial associations.  The Territorial Force was designed to reinforce the regular army in expeditionary operations abroad but, because of political opposition, it was assigned to home defence.  Members were liable for service anywhere in the UK and could not be compelled to serve overseas unless they volunteered to do so.

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Tunbridge Wells Cemetery contains 72 scattered First World War burials. Second World War burials number 63, more than half of which form a war graves plot in the south-eastern part.