Regimental number: 4433
School: State School, Victoria
Religion: Church of England
Occupation: Hairdresser
Address: Lava Street, Warrnambool, Victoria
Marital status: Single
Age at embarkation: 18
Next of kin: Brother, G Baker, Lava Street, Warrnambool, Victoria
Previous military service: Nil
Enlistment date : 17 July 1915
Date of enlistment from Nominal Roll: 19 July 1915
Rank on enlistment: Private
Unit name : 14th Battalion, 14th Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number: 23/31/4
Embarkation details: Unit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A70 Ballarat on 18 February 1916
Rank from Nominal Roll: Private:
Unit from Nominal Roll: 14th Battalion
Fate: Killed in Action 8 August 1916
Place of death or wounding: Mouquet Farm, Pozieres, France
Place of burial: Serre Road Cemetery No. 2 (Plot III, Row D, Grave No. 3), France
Panel number, Roll of Honour, Australian War Memorial: 71
Miscellaneous information from cemetery records
Parents: Walter and Mary Ann BAKER, Born at Warrnambool, Victoria
Other details
War service: Western Front
Medals: British War Medal, Victory Medal
Known as "Charlie", Charles William Baker was the grandson of John Everard and Jane Sanders, being the son of their daughter Mary Ann Everard. Prior to his enlisting, he was working in Warrnambool as a hairdresser, apprenticed to J. Fisher of Warrnambool.
On July 19, 1915, both Charlie and his older brother, Henry Draper Baker, enlisted to serve with the AIF . Being only 18 years old, and with both of his parents deceased, Charlie had to seek the written permission of an elder brother, George Baker, to endorse his enlistment with the 14th Battalion.
Henry "Harry" Baker was 21 years old, and had spent five years in an apprenticeship with a local Warrnambool tailor before enlisting. The brothers did not serve in the same Unit...whilst Charlie was in the 14th Battalion, Harry enlisted as a trumpeter with the Field Artillery Brigade 4, Battery 10.
Harry left for overseas service first...his Unit embarked from Melbourne on board HMAT A18 Wiltshire on 18 November 1915. Charlie sailed from Melbourne with his Unit in February of the following year.
Harry served in Egypt and France, but despite sickness and shellshock, was fortunate enough to be able to return to Australia in April of 1919. His younger brother Charlie was not so lucky... after serving his country for less than six months, 18 year old Charlie Baker was killed, along with three mates, by a German Officer in a trench on the Western Front.
The circumstances of Charlie's death are heartbreaking and horrifying in equal measures. An eyewitness report, filed by the Red Cross, reads as follows:
" 14th Battalion, A.I.F. Baker. C.W., 4433.
MISSING 8-8-1916.
In front of Moquet Farm in the trenches early in the morning of the 7th, the Germans counter attacked, and cut five of us off. We could not have got away, we were wounded. One German officer was going to take us back as prisoners. A second officer came up, but seeing that they would have some difficulty to remove us, the second officer shot us, as we were resting in the trenches.
C. Baker, H. Carroll, George Booth and L. Handley were killed, but the bullet he fired at me hit a testament in my pocket and only just went through it, and did not kill me.
Reference: J.C.A Findlow, 5375,
Ward 22, Harefield Hospital.
September 30, 1916.
P.S. I saw the Testament and have no doubt the story is true.
- D.P. Dickson, London, October 6, 1916."
" 14th Batt, A.I.F. Baker, C.W. 4433 "B" Coy.
Missing August 1916.
Witness saw soldier's body lying in No Man's Land between Pozieres and Moquet Farm on August 7, 1916. On examination of the body, the witness saw that the soldier had been hit in the head with a bullet and was quite dead. Does not know if soldier was buried. Knew him well, being in the same company.
Description: Height 5 feet 10, sharp features. Called "Snowy".
Witness: Wynne, L/Cpt 1307, 14th Batt, "B" Coy.
March 29, 1917, Wergret Camp, Wareham."
" A.I.F 14th Batt. Baker C.W. 4433. Missing 8/ 8/ 1916.
I was wounded in the same action. His name was Charlie. We came from Warrnambool together.
Ref: Inf. R. Fisher, 4483. Dartford, 21 March, 1917."
This soldier was Warrnambool man Raymond Owen Fisher, a 24 year old tailor who had enlisted with the 14th Battalion on July 12, 1915, and sailed with Charlie Baker on the ship 'Ballarat' in February 1916.
There was one conflicting report from another witness:
"14th batt. A.I.F. Baker, C.W. 4433
Missing August 8, 1916.
Witness saw soldier wounded in our own front line trenches at Pozieres, on the 8th August 1916, around 9:30 P.M. A shell exploded, wounding soldier badly in the back, and he was carried by stretcher-bearers to a dressing station in the rear. Does not know what happened to him afterwards. Witness knew soldier well, and was in the same company.
Description: 5ft 9 inches. Fair complexion. Medium build.
Witness: Burnett, C.C. 702, 14th Batt., "A" Coy.
April 7, 1917. Worgret Camp, Wareham."
I would think that the eyewitness account of what happened would be more reliable than the second version given by the soldier Burnett. The first account is also backed up by the fact that the bodies of the four soldiers who were killed by the German Officer in the trench- Charlie Baker, George Booth, Lionel Handley and Horace Carroll- were all exhumed together from the same unmarked grave in 1927, and reburied in separate plots, but next to each other, in the Serre Road Cemetery near Beaumont Hamel in France.
A witness who saw Horace Carroll's body after he had been shot also supports the first account by John Findlow:
" Witness says he came across soldier's body in No Mans Land between Pozieres and Moquet farm. He had been hit in the head by a machine gun bullet, and was dead when witness saw him. Witness took the soldier's identity disc and handed it to the Coy. Sergeant Major, "B" Coy, 14th Battalion,.(Trewheeler). Does not know if soldier was buried.
Witness: Lt. Corp. Wynne, 1307, "B" Coy, 14th Battalion.
This witness was Nathaniel Thompson Wynne, from Box Hill, near Melbourne, who had also provided information regarding Charlie Baker's death.
At the time of their deaths in a trench on the Western Front, Charlie Baker was aged 18, Lionel Handley was 19, George Booth was 21 and Horace Handley was 23 years of age.
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