Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) 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 ...

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 ("Work Conquers All") , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent School Day and Boarding School , religion = Church of England , president = , head_label = Head , head = Nicola Huggett ...

, 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 from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...

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 fo ...

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. Though the Ashanti emerged victorio ...

, 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 supporti ...

. He was deployed to Afghanistan in 1879 where he became a Brigade Commander and took part in the

Battle of Kandahar Battle of Kandahar may refer to: * Battle of Kandahar (1880), the last major conflict of the Second Anglo-Afghan War * Battle of Kandahar (2001), the fall of the city in 2001, signaling the end of organized Taliban control of Afghanistan * Battl ...

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 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 Govern ...

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