Pte 300182 Joseph Baker

• Age: 25
• From: Skelmersdale, Lancs
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 18th Btn
• K.I.A Thursday 6th December 1917
• Commemorated at: Bedford House Cem Encl 4
  Panel Ref: Sp Mem.41

Joseph was born in the December quarter of 1891 in Skelmersdale the son of Henry Baker and his wife Grace (nee Carr). 

His father, from Staffordshire, and his mother, born in Southport, married in Skelmersdale in 1889 and had six children. Joseph was named after his paternal grandfather, a collier. He had an older brother William Thomas (who died in infancy), and younger siblings Eliza (who died at age 1), James, born in 1896, Abraham, 1906, and Henry, born in 1909.

The 1901 Census sees the family living at 25 Liverpool Road, Skelmersdale. His father is a gas works labourer, Joseph is 9 and James 4. Living with them is his widowed maternal grandfather, James Carr, 61.

By the time of the1911 Census the family had moved to 31 Traverse Street, Parr, St Helens. By now Joseph, aged 19, is employed as a drawer in a coal mine. He has three younger brothers, James, Abraham and Henry. His father is 42, a surface labourer at a coal mine, his mother is 43, James, 14, is a glass hand at a sheet glass works, Abraham is 5, and Henry is 18 months old. They have a boarder, 61-year old John Peareson, a coal mine locomotive cleaner.

His father died in 1913 aged 45.

Joseph enlisted in St Helens joining the Lancashire Hussars Yeomanry as Private 250170. The amount of the War Gratuity suggests that he enlisted soon after war was declared, in about November 1914.  The medal roll shows that he shipped overseas with the 1/1st Lancashire Hussars.  On completing mobilisation in August 1914 the battalion moved to Kent with the West Lancashire Division.  In April 1915, still in Kent, it transferred to the 2nd West Lancashire Division.  In October 1915 the regiment was split up.  Other squadrons shipped to France in late 1915;  “C” Squadron went on 14 November 1915 to join 35th Division at Salisbury Plain.  They landed in France at Le Havre on 1st February 1916, which would explain why no 1914-1915 Star has been found for Joseph.  They rejoined the 1/1st Bn on 10 May 1916 as VIII Corps Cavalry Regiment.

In July 1917 the regiment was dismounted and sent for infantry training. Sixteen officers and 290 Other Ranks were absorbed into the 18th (Service) Battalion of the King’s (Liverpool Regiment) on 24 September 1917, when Joseph was given the regimental number 300182.  At this time the Pals battalions were in the Ypres Salient.

The Third Battle of Ypres (also known as Passchendaele) had begun on 31st July and continued until November.  

The 18th Bn War Diary records -

On 4th December the battalion moved up to front line trenches at Gheluvelt, No.3 Coy on right, No.4 Coy in centre, and No.2 Coy on left.  Heavy enemy shelling, all calibres and Minenwerfers. Several direct hits on R. Coy posts. Retaliation asked for but little response from our guns.  Casualties 6 killed, 6 wounded.

December 5 - Enemy opened heavy machine gun fire, and fired salvos of 77s on working parties. Heavy shelling, all calibres, consequent on movement being observed. Enemy M.G.s active along Bassevillebeek Valley. Casualties 2 wounded.

December 6 - Heavy bursts of fire on Bassevillebeek Valley for about 10 minutes.  Enemy very vigilant and invariably shelled movement around Bn H.Q. after dawn.  

During the night 6/7th violent bursts of fire 7.7 + 10.5 cm + 18cm were directed against Bn H.Q. vicinity, Dumbarton Wood and tracks. 

Casualties 3 wounded, 1 killed (Pte. 300182 J. Baker)

As the diary entry confirmed, Joseph was killed in action on 06th December 1917, aged 25.

He is commemorated at Bedford House Cemetery, No.4 Enclosure on a Special Memorial headstone which states that he is believed to be buried in the Cemetery. Each of the Special Memorial headstones bears the epitaph, written by Rudyard Kipling:

"THEIR GLORY SHALL NOT BE BLOTTED OUT"

Zillebeke village and most of the commune were in the hands of Commonwealth forces for the greater part of the First World War, but the number of cemeteries in the neighbourhood bears witness to the fierce fighting in the vicinity from 1914 to 1918.

Bedford House, sometimes known as Woodcote House, were the names given by the Army to the Chateau Rosendal, a country house in a small wooded park with moats. Although it never fell into German hands, the house and the trees were gradually destroyed by shell fire. It was used by field ambulances and as the headquarters of brigades and other fighting units, and charcoal pits were dug there from October 1917.

In time, the property became largely covered by small cemeteries; five enclosures existed at the date of the Armistice, but the graves from No.1 were then removed to White House Cemetery, St. Jean, and those from No.5 to Aeroplane Cemetery, Ypres.

ENCLOSURE No.2 was begun in December 1915, and used until October 1918. After the Armistice, 437 graves were added, all but four of which came from the Ecole de Bienfaisance and Asylum British Cemeteries, both at Ypres.

ENCLOSURE No.3, the smallest, was used from February 1915 to December 1916; the burials made in August-October 1915 were largely carried out by the 17th Division.

ENCLOSURE No.4, the largest, was used from June 1916 to February 1918, largely by the 47th (London) Division, and after the Armistice it was enlarged when 3,324 graves were brought in from other burial grounds and from the battlefields of the Ypres Salient. Almost two-thirds of the graves are unidentified.

ENCLOSURE No.6 was made in the 1930s from the graves that were continuing to be found on the battlefield of the Ypres Salient. This enclosure also contains Second World War burials, all of them soldiers of the British Expeditionary Force, who died in the defence of the Ypres-Comines canal and railway at the end of May 1940. The canal lies on high ground on the west side of the cemetery.

Commonwealth casualties buried in the following smaller cemeteries were either concentrated into Bedford House Cemetery after the war or if lost, are now commemorated in Bedford House Cemetery:-

ASYLUM BRITISH CEMETERY, YPRES, was established in the grounds of a psychiatric hospital (the Hospice du Sacre Coeur) a little West of the railway station, between the Poperinghe road and the railway. It was used by Field Ambulances and fighting units from February 1915, to November 1917, and it contained the graves of 265 soldiers from the United Kingdom, nine from Canada, seven from Australia and two of the British West Indies Regiment.

BOESINGHE FRENCH CEMETERY No.2, a little South of Bard Cottage, contained the grave of one soldier from Canada.

DROOGENBROODHOEK GERMAN CEMETERY, MOORSLEDE, contained the graves of two United Kingdom soldiers who fell in October 1914.

ECOLE DE BIENFAISANCE CEMETERY, YPRES, was on the North side of the Poperinghe road, immediately West of the railway, in the grounds of a school (later rebuilt). It was used by Field Ambulances in 1915-1917, and it contained the graves of 133 soldiers from the United Kingdom, three from Canada, three from Australia and one of the British West Indies Regiment.

KERKHOVE CHURCHYARD contained the graves of five United Kingdom soldiers, who fell in October and November 1918, and seven German.

POELCAPELLE GERMAN CEMETERY No.4, between Langemarck and the Poelcapelle-St. Julien road, contained the graves of 52 soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell in 1914 and 1916.

ZONNEBEKE BRITISH CEMETERIES No.1 and No.3 were on the South and North sides respectively of the Broodseinde-Zonnebeke road. Zonnebeke was occupied by the Germans on the 22 October 1914, retaken by the French on the following day, and evacuated at the beginning of May 1915; retaken by British troops on the 26 September 1917; evacuated again in April 1918; and retaken by Belgian troops on the 28th September, 1918. Four British Cemeteries were made by the Germans on the Broodseinde-Zonnebeke road; No.1 contained the graves of 31 United Kingdom soldiers (mainly 2nd East Surrey) who fell in April 1915, and No.3 those of 69 who fell in April, and May 1915.

In all, 5,139 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War are buried or commemorated in the enclosures of Bedford House Cemetery. 3,011 of the burials are unidentified but special memorials commemorate a number of casualties known or believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials name casualties buried in other cemeteries whose graves could not be found on concentration. Second World War burials number 69 (3 of which are unidentified). There are 2 Germans buried here.

The cemetery was designed by W.C. Von Berg.

His mother Grace received his Army effects, including a War Gratuity of £15-10s.  The pension card, giving her address as 54 Grant Street, St. Helens, shows that she was awarded a pension of 8/6d a week from June 1918.

Joseph is commemorated on the St Helens Civic Memorial.

In 1939 his mother Grace, an old age pensioner, is still living at 54 Grant Street.  She lived through the Second World War, and died in late 1945 aged 77.

We currently have no further information on Joseph Baker, If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.