My Granddad

How to commemorate today? Ah I thought my granddad Baker. He wasn’t killed in WW1 but he was shot and then discharged due to his wounds.

He was James William Baker born 9th Oct. 1883 in Burton on Trent, and died 17th January 1968 in Leeds aged 84. He joined the Kings Royal Rifle Corps. On 9th Feb. 1915 in Leeds and served until 25th April 1917 when he was discharged due to gunshot wounds in the right elbow and left buttock, according to his discharge papers.

I remember he had problems with his arm but until many years later when I read his discharge papers I never knew he had been wounded as like most men of that era he never spoke of the war. During the 2nd world war he was an air raid warden and also went out on fire watch at night. As a little girl I used to want to go with him.
He was a kind and gentle person who taught me to read and write before I went to school, and how to do mental arithmetic. I was always in trouble at school because I could do the sums in my head but not write down on paper the working out bit.
Our thoughts today are with all those men who fought in the Great War, those who died and those who came home too because their lives were never the same again.

The hand on his shoulder is that of his partner Maggie because I took his picture from one of them both together taken around 1920.