Corporal William George Baker
William Baker was born in Reading, Berkshire, England on July 11, 1889. He immigrated to Paris and was employed as a laborer in the Penmans Machine Shop. He and his wife Ada attended the Paris Congregational Church. They had a daughter, Nellie, who was two years old. He had served one year with the 25th Brant Dragoons before the war. William was 26 years of age when he enlisted with the 125th Battalion in Paris.
William was a member of the 10th Platoon that embarked aboard the S.S Scandinavia on February 12, 1916. The 9th and 10th Platoons were the first contingent of soldiers from Paris, nearly 100 men, to go overseas.
William had a medical examination by the Standing Medical Board in Bramshott in England. He was found to have a deformity in his left forearm and flat feet. The injury to his arm occurred three years earlier when his arm was caught in the gearing of a machine, likely in his work with Penmans, and it had taken 12 months to heal. Both bones were broken and there was a six-inch scar. His right foot was very flat, which would have made marching difficult. He was declared fit for Permanent Base Duty only.
He remained for a time with the 125th Battalion and on July 23, 1917 became attached to the Canadian Army Medical Corps. In England, the Canadian Army Medical Corps (CAMC) acted as the central hub for long-term recovery, highly specialized medical treatment, and frontline preparation for the Canadian Expeditionary Force. While frontline units handled immediate trauma, the CAMC infrastructure in England managed the massive backlog of wounded soldiers sent across the English Channel. By the end of the war, the CAMC operated a massive network in England that included 10 General Hospitals, 7 Special Hospitals, and 8 Convalescent Hospitals. Their primary responsibilities spanned several critical areas such as specialized medical facilities to treat specific, complex war injuries; orthopaedics and otology to build shattered limbs and restore mobility; ophthalmology and otology to treat severe eye and ear injuries; neurology to manage what is known today as PTSD; infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, influenza and venereal diseases; and convalescent care and rehabilitation.
Soldiers who survived initial surgeries in France were shipped to England to heal. The CAMC operated eight massive convalescent hospitals designed to transition soldiers back to health. On October 19, 1917, William was transferred to No.12 Canadian General Hospital, in Bramshott, Hampshire which provided critical treatment and rehabilitation for Canadian soldiers and facilitated care for overseas casualties.
On November 22, 1917, William was transferred to No.9 Stationary Hospital in Boulogne, France which was set up in December. They first set up operations in the village of Longuenesse, adjacent to St. Omer, to handle casualties from the Western Front. Following the German Spring Offensive (March Retreat) in 1918, the hospital closed its St. Omer site. The nursing staff and medical personnel relocated further back to major hospital bases in Etaples and Camiers. William seems to have suffered a concussion on May 23, 1918, though there are no details in the record. This was about the time of devastating German air raid on Canadian and British base hospitals in Etaples. He returned to his unit two days after his concussion. Then William contracted influenza on June 9, 1918. He rejoined his unit on June 15.
The unit remained operational through the end of hostilities. It holds the distinction of being the final Canadian stationary hospital to receive patients in France, eventually demobilizing back to England and Canada in mid-1919. William was promoted to Corporal on April 24, 1919 and proceeded to England on May 30. Corporal William George Baker, who had been declared fit only for permanent base duty, was going home.