Prof. H. B. Baker, C.B.E., F.R.S

Abstract

THE recent death of Herbert Brereton Baker removes a familiar name from the roll of chemists who made their reputation before the opening of the present century. He was born on June 25, 1862, as the second son of the Rev. John Baker, curate-in-charge at Livesey, near Blackburn-a district in which the distress arising from the cotton famine was then intense, and the relief of which was a real concern of the Baker family. After a period of schooling at Blackburn, both boys were enabled, by sacrifice and rigid economy on the part of their parents, to become pupils at Manchester Grammar School. Beginning on the classical side, young Baker turned over to science, securing later a scholarship at Balliol, as well as a Brackenbury school scholarship. The teaching of chemistry at the Manchester Grammar School was then in the capable hands of Francis Jones, and Baker was always ready to acknowledge his debt to one whom he termed “the best of all teachers”.