George Percival Baker (1856–1951) was a textile merchant and manufacturer, collector of fabrics from India and Persia, amateur botanist, mountaineer, oarsman, and amateur photographer.

Biography

George Percival Baker's father George Baker in 1848 designed and supervised the creation of the garden at the British Embassy at Constantinople and, after completing the work, in Constantinople went into the trading business, including the export of Turkish carpets. After education at a Franciscan monastery school and then at a British school in Pera, G. P. Baker and his brother Harry were sent to England and continued their education at a private school in Knights Hill, Norwood. About five later, G. P. Baker returned to Constantinople in 1871 and went into the family business. In 1874 G. P. Baker left Constantinople to work in England for the family business. In 1884, when he was 28 years old, he married Mary Emily "Minnie" Davis. With capital from their father, he and his brother James founded in 1884 the firm G P & J Baker and purchased in 1893 the long-established printing firm of Swaisland located in

Crayford Crayford is a town and electoral ward in South East London, England, within the London Borough of Bexley. It lies east of Bexleyheath and north west of Dartford. Crayford was in the historic county of Kent until 1965. The settlement deve ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. G. P. Baker was an important collector of early Oriental fabrics and a leading expert on calico painting and printing in the East Indies. As a mountaineer, G. P. Baker is most famous as one of a party of four who in August 1882 opened a new route on the east ridge of Dent Blanche. In 1929 G. P. Baker and Marco Bonakis were pioneers in the use of

seaplane A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of takeoff, taking off and water landing, landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their tec ...

s to transport plants. In 1933 G. P. Baker was awarded the

Victoria Medal of Honour The Victoria Medal of Honour (VMH) is awarded to British horticulturists resident in the United Kingdom whom the Royal Horticultural Society Council considers deserving of special honour by the Society. The award was established in 1897 "in per ...

of the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nort ...

. G. P. and Minnie Baker had five sons and two daughters. Three of the sons died in WW I. (

Araliaceae The Araliaceae are a family of flowering plants composed of about 43 genera and around 1500 species consisting of primarily woody plants and some herbaceous plants. The morphology of Araliaceae varies widely, but it is predominantly distinguisha ...

) '' Bakeria''

Seem. Berthold Carl Seemann (25 February 1825, in Hanover, Germany – 10 October 1871, in Nicaragua, Central America), was a German botanist. He travelled widely and collected and described plants from the Pacific and South America. In 1844 he trave ...

is named in honour of the botanist J. G. Baker of

Thirsk Thirsk is a market town and civil parish in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England known for its racecourse; quirky yarnbomber displays, and depiction as local author James Herriot's fictional Darrowby. History Archeological fin ...

. The plant genus ''Bakeria'' now contains no taxonomically accepted names.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baker, George Percival 1856 births 1951 deaths 20th-century British botanists 21st-century British botanists British mountain climbers