Lieutenant-General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the battlefield, who was normall ...

Sir Thomas Durand Baker KCB (23 March 1837 – 9 February 1893) was a British army officer, and

Quartermaster-General to the Forces The Quartermaster-General to the Forces (QMG) is a senior general in the British Army. The post has become symbolic: the Ministry of Defence organisation charts since 2011 have not used the term "Quartermaster-General to the Forces"; they simply ...

Military career

Educated at

Cheltenham College Cheltenham College is a public school ( fee-charging boarding and day school for pupils aged 13–18) in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. The school opened in 1841 as a Church of England foundation and is known for its outstanding linguis ...

, Baker was commissioned into the 18th (Royal Irish) Regiment in 1854.Thomas Durand Baker at Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
/ref> He served in the

Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...

and was present at the Siege of Sevastapol. He was involved in suppressing the

Indian Mutiny The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the form ...

in 1857. In 1863 he was deployed to New Zealand where he served as Deputy Assistant Adjutant-General and then Assistant Adjutant-General. He was involved in the capture of Orakau in 1864.Tuapeka Times, Rōrahi XXV, Putanga 1986, 5 Paengawhāwhā 1893, Page 4
/ref> Then in 1873 he was despatched, during the

Third Anglo-Ashanti War The Anglo-Ashanti wars were a series of five conflicts that took place between 1824 and 1900 between the Ashanti Empire—in the Akan interior of the Gold Coast—and the British Empire and its African allies. Despite initial Ashanti victorie ...

, to West Africa where he served as Assistant Adjutant, then Quartermaster-General and then finally as

Chief of Staff The title chief of staff (or head of staff) identifies the leader of a complex organization such as the armed forces, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a principal staff officer (PSO), who is the coordinator of the supportin ...

. He was deployed to Afghanistan in 1879 where he became a Brigade Commander and took part in the Battle of Kandahar in 1880. In 1882 he went to Ireland as Deputy Quartermaster-General and then as Deputy Adjutant-General. He became Adjutant-General, India in 1884 and

General Officer Commanding General officer commanding (GOC) is the usual title given in the armies of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth (and some other nations, such as Ireland) to a general officer who holds a command appointment. Thus, a general might be the GOC ...

a Division of the

Bengal Army The Bengal Army was the army of the Bengal Presidency, one of the three presidencies of British India within the British Empire. The presidency armies, like the presidencies themselves, belonged to the East India Company (EIC) until the Gover ...

in 1886. His final appointment was as

in 1890; he died while still in office in 1893.

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Baker, Thomas Durand 1837 births 1893 deaths People educated at Cheltenham College Royal Irish Regiment (1684–1922) officers British Army lieutenant generals Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath British military personnel of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 British Army personnel of the Crimean War British military personnel of the Second Anglo-Afghan War British military personnel of the Third Anglo-Ashanti War