Edwin Alfred Baker (1880 - 1953)

Born 21 Jul 1880 in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, England

Ancestors

Husband of Alice Maud Ashton — married 19 Jan 1905 in Congregational Chapel, Cheetham Hill, , Lancashire, England

Descendants

Died 26 Apr 1953 at age 72 in Sunnybrook Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Colin Whitehead [send private message]

Biography

Ted and wife, Alice Maud ASHTON, came to Canada in 1911 . They took their daughter, Lucy, with them as she was too young to be left behind. The other children, Mary and Alfred, stayed in England with their grandparents (Mary with the Ashtons and Alfred with the Bakers - they made sure they met every Sunday so they would not forget each other). Mary and Alfred came over by themselves in 1912 on the "Teutonic" and landed in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Alfred was told to say he was four years old to get a cheaper fare. "I'm four but I'm five", he told them! A couple heading for Saskatchewan agreed to look after them on the train to Winnipeg, Manitoba but they registered them as their own children in a Winnipeg hotel and Ted had to enlist the manager's help to rescue them! Ted was a painter/decorator in Winnipeg, but on 6 Nov 1914, the family moved to a log cabin near Mulvihill, Manitoba to homestead on NE20-23-5W1 in the Rural Municipality of Grahamdale . On 3 Dec. 1916, Ted enlisted in WWI at Winnipeg, Manitoba. He served in France and Belgium and was discharged on April 8, 1919 due to demobilization. In 1920, the family moved back to Winnipeg as homesteading proved to be too difficult. As Adam KELNER once said, the only thing you could grow on that land was stones! SOURCE: Daughters, Mary and Lucy BAKER: Edwin Alfred BAKER once tied daughter Lucy into a potato sack and told her he would hang her from the tree for the wolves to eat. He didn't hang the sack but lay it beside the tree where the terrified Lucy lay quietly for hours. Once when the stove pipes were overheated and sparking, he awoke Mary and Alfred and made them take the hot pipes down and carry them outside to clean them so he wouldn't burn his own hands. The kids were expected to work like adults and were beaten when they couldn't and Alice was blamed for everything that, in his estimation, went wrong. Beatings were regular. He knocked Alice's teeth out and once beat Mary so badly that not even the "not-want-to-interfere" neighbours could ignore it. They had Ted arrested and he was sent to the Selkirk Mental Health Centre (in Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada) for observation. He was diagnosed as "just mean tempered", so he was released. SOURCE: Gordon Eric RUSSELL (grandson) - Grandma and Grandpa BAKER separated when I was a child and Grandpa went (from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) to live near his youngest son, Fred, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Ted died in Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and had apparently resided there for several years beforehis death. Sunnybrook Hospital was a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital.

Sources

• Notes for EDWIN ALFRED BAKER: AS WRITTEN BY GORDON ERIC RUSSELL