the Avonmouth docks (in association with Sir John Wolfe Barry, 1902-8); the Rosslare and Waterford railway; the widening of the Buccleuch dock entrance at Barrow, and the construction of the bascule bridges at Walney (Barrow-in-Furness) and across the Swale near Queenborough.
Baker gave much professional advice in regard to important structures at home and abroad. When the roof of Charing Cross railway station collapsed on 5 Dec. 1905 he at once examined it, at some personal danger, and gave serviceable counsel. He was also consulted by Captain J. B. Eads in connection with the design of the St. Louis bridge across the Mississippi, and in regard to the first Hudson river tunnel. When the latter undertaking threatened failure, he designed a pneumatic shield which enabled the work to be extended 2000 ft., about three-fourths of the way across the river (1888-91). Nowhere were his abilities appreciated more highly than in Canada and the United States. He was an honorary member of both the Canadian and the American Society of Civil Engineers and of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
Baker served from 1888 until his death on the ordnance committee, of which he became the senior civil member on the death of Sir Frederick Bramwell [q. v. Suppl. II] in 1903. He was active in many government inquiries. He was a member of a committee on light railways in 1895, and of the committee appointed by the board of trade in 1900 to inquire into the loss of strength in steel rails. To the London county council he reported in 1891, with (Sir) Alexander Binnie, on the main drainage of London, and in 1897, with George Frederick Deacon [q. v. Suppl. II], on the water-supply of London from Wales.
Baker was elected an associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1867, a member in 1877, a member of council in 1882, and president in 1895, remaining on the council till his death. His services to the institution were very valuable. During his presidency the governing body was enlarged with a view to giving the chief colonies and the principal industrial districts at home representation on the council, and the system of election of the council was modified.
Baker became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1890 and a member of its council in 1892-3, and was one of its vice-presidents from 1896 until his death.
Of the British Association, Baker was president of the mechanical science section at Aberdeen in 1885. He was also actively interested in the Royal Institution, in the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (on the council of which he sat from 1899 until death), in the (Royal) Society of Arts, and in the Iron and Steel Institute. He was an associate of the Institution of Naval Architects and an honorary associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects. Honorary degrees were conferred upon him by the Universities of Cambridge (D.Sc. 1900), Edinburgh (LL.D. 1890), and Dublin (M.Eng. 1892).
Baker died suddenly from syncope at his residence, Bowden Green, Pangbourne, on 19 May 1907, and was buried at Idbury, near Chipping Norton. He was unmarried. His portrait in oils, by J. C. Michie, is in the possession of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and an excellent photograph forms the frontispiece of vol. clviii. of that society's 'Proceedings.'
A memorial window, designed by Mr. J. N. Comper, was unveiled by Earl Cromer on 3 Dec. 1909 in the north aisle of the nave of Westminster Abbey.
[Proc. Roy. Soc., vol. lxxxiv.; Min. Proc. Inst. Civ. Eng., clxx. 377; The Times, 20 May 1907; Engineering, lxxiii. 685, lxxviii. 791; the Engineer, ciii. 524; see art. Fowler, Sir John, Suppl. I.]
BAKER, SHIRLEY WALDEMAR (1835–1903), Wesleyan missionary and premier of Tonga, born at Brimscombe near Stroud, Gloucestershire, in 1835, was son of George Baker by his wife Jane Woolmer. He emigrated to Australia about 1853, where, after acquiring a knowledge of pharmacy, he studied for the Wesleyan ministry. In 1860 he was sent as a missionary to the island of Tonga in the South Pacific. In consequence of the cession of Fiji to England in 1874 the Tongans became seriously alarmed for their independence, and Baker, at the request of King George of Tonga, negotiated a treaty with Germany recognising Tonga as an independent kingdom in return for the perpetual lease of a coaling-station in Vavau. In reward for his good offices Baker received a German decoration. In 1879 the Wesleyan conference in Sydney, at the request of Sir Arthur Gordon (afterwards Lord Stanmore), British high commissioner of the Western Pacific, appointed a commission to inquire into various charges preferred against Baker by the British vice-consul in connection with his method of collecting money from the natives, and Baker was recalled to a circuit in Australia. But he did not obey the order. In January
