Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol I (1901).djvu/172

 stubborn resistance Shakir Pasha was enabled to retreat in safety from his position at Kamarli, In recognition of this success Baker was promoted by telegram from the porte to the rank of ferik or lieutenant-general. During the retreat of Suleiman's army he commanded the rearguard, and it fell to him to burn the bridge at Bazardjik over the Maritza. Later, however, in the war, becoming disgusted at the unaccountable abandonment of strong positions by the Turkish generals, he requested permission to return to England. Baker published in 1879 his book entitled 'War in Bulgaria : a Narrative of Personal Experience' (London, 2 vols. 8vo), in which he confined himself to describing the operations in which he assisted. He continued in the Turkish service, and after the conclusion of the war was commissioned to superintend the carrying out of the proposed Turkish reforms in Armenia. In 1882 he entered the Egyptian service on the offer being made to him of the command of the newly organised Egyptian army; but on his arrival at Cairo this offer was withdrawn, and he was given the command of the police. Baker was convinced that the police would sooner or later be wanted as a military reserve, and concentrated his attention rather on the semi-military gendarmerie than the police proper (, Egypt, p. 332). His desperate endeavour to relieve Tokar with 3,500 Egyptian troops and gendarmerie, little better than rabble in discipline, met with complete defeat at El Teb on 5 Feb. 1884. His own account of the action was that, on the square being threatened by a force of the enemy less than one thousand strong, the Egyptian troops threw down their arms and ran, allowing themselves to be killed without the slightest resistance (ib. p. 169). He acted on the intelligence staff of the force under Sir Gerald Graham [q. v. Suppl.], and guided the advance of the army to the second battle of El Teb on 29 Feb. 1884, on which occasion he was wounded.

Baker remained in command of the Egyptian police till his death, which took place at Tel-el-kebir from angina pectoris on 17 Nov. 1887. He was buried with military honours in the English cemetery at Cairo.

In a despatch from Lord Salisbury to Sir Evelyn Baring (now Lord Cromer), dated 5 Dec. 1887, the great regret of her majesty's government was expressed at his death, and acknowledgment was made of the important services he had rendered to the Egyptian government. His great military abilities were, however, wasted in the command of a civil force; they were such that 'his career might have been among the most brilliant in our military service'(Times, 18 Nov. 1887).

He married, on 13 Dec. 1865, Fanny, only child of Frank Wormald of Potterton Hall, Aberford, by which marriage there were two daughters, the younger of whom only survived her father and married Sir John Carden, bart.

Besides the works mentioned in the text Baker wrote a pamphlet on army reform (1869, 8vo) and 'Organisation of Cavalry' for the 'Journal of the Royal United Services Institution.'  BALDWIN, ROBERT (1804–1858), Canadian statesman, born in York (now Toronto), in Upper Canada, on 12 May 1804, was eldest son of William Warren Baldwin, a physician of Edinburgh, who settled in Canada in 1798 in company with his father, Robert Baldwin of Summer Hill, Knockmore, Co. Cork, Ireland, and there engaged in practice as a bai'rister. His mother was Phoebe, daughter of William Willcocks, sometime mayor of Cork in Ireland, and later judge of the home district in Upper Canada. Robert received his education at the Home district grammar school under John Strachan [q.v.], and in 1819 began the study of law. On being admitted an attorney and called to the bar of the province in Trinity term, 1825, he was taken into partnership by his father, and from that time conducted a large and profitable business until 4848, when he retired from active practice. Four years previously he had inherited a large property in Canada. On two occasions he was treasurer of the Law Society and honorary head of the Upper Canada bar, holding office for the first time in 1847 and 1848, and again from 1850 till his death.

Baldwin's name is inseparably connected with the introduction and establishment in Canada of parliamentary government. His public life dates from 1828, when he was an unsuccessful candidate for York. He won the seat in January 1830, but was defeated after the dissolution in June following, and did not again enter the legislative assembly until 1841, after the union of Upper with Lower Canada, and the grant to the colony of responsible or parliamentary government.

Meantime Baldwin drew up the assembly's petition to the king, dated 1829, which protested against the governor's dismissal of a judge, John Walpole Willis [q. v.] This document contains what is deemed to be the first request on the part of a British colony 