p.20
...Elizabeth, Maria’s eldest sister, remained in England and in 1856 married, in Bradford, the husband of one of her deceased sisters, a man called Percival. The Heywood, Percival and Pulman families were to play an important part in the lives and business interests of the Baker family.
The George Baker family
George and Maria Baker had nine children, of which two, Frederick born in 1859 and Albert, born in 1868, died in infancy. All the children were born in Turkey and their various registrations3 give some indication of the family’s whereabouts of their father’s trading status at each birth. The first five children, Louise (born in 1854); George Percival (1856); Henry (Harry) (1857); Frederick (1859) and Arthur (1861), were all registered on August 16th 1862 by George Baker “merchant of Galata”. Louise and George Percival were born in Therapia and the others in Pera. Frederick William (1862) was born at Galata and James (1864) and Amelia (1866) at Pera, their father describing himself as both “general dealer” and “general merchant”.
George Percival’s memoirs of childhood are anectodal but give a fascinating insight into the life of Europeans living abroad. “Their existence” described as Ruby Gray as having strong English middle-class Victorian flavour with unexpected “Eastern highlights”. Summers were spent by the Baker family on the island of Halki in the Marmora Sea and G.P. Baker remembers his parents’ first home at the Galata Tower near to the homes of the Heywood and Pulman families.
Education
As the eldest son, G.P. Baker’s education was experimental. From attending a Franciscan monastery where he could remember learning some Italian, he went, at the age of eight, to a school at Taksim, near the British Embassy. Run by a schoolmaster brought especially by the British community to Turkey in 1863, lessons were held in a large marquee left over from the Crimean War.
In 1886 Louise and G.P. were brought to England and Louise, who was twelve, was enrolled at a boarding school in Sydenham, her brother going to school close by, in Upper Norwood. Within a year Harry had joined his brother in England and another school was found for the boys. In the holidays the boys lived with their aunt Polly Pulman, who was now widowed and living in Balham with her children Edith, Leila, Percy and Charles, close to her widowed sister Elizabeth Percival and children Amy, Lily and Charles. The Pulman house became home for G.P. Baker throughout his school days and early years in business. He was very fond of his aunt Polly who became guardian angel to all the Baker boys as they visited London, and all the Baker, Pulman and Percival children were close friends, with G.P., as the oldest, acting as surrogate father to his cousins. This responsibility must have aged him before his years and, as Ruby Gray remarks, “he kept this feeling of family responsibility all his life, he was always ready to help anyone in the family, although perhaps apt to be overbearing at times, but his integrity was never questioned”.
Harry Baker made good progress at school and, at the age of eighteen returned to Constantinople to work with “Uncle Heywood” in the mill. Eventually he took sole charge and remained there until his untimely death from cholera in 1906.
The opening of an American school (later to be called Robert College) at Roumeli Hissar on the Bosphorus enabled the younger Baker boys to be educated in Turkey, although all finished their studies in England. Arthur studied French and commercial subjects at London University and in France, in preparation for entering the business in Constantinople, where he returned in the early 1880s. In 1890 his father took him into partnership, and the firm “G. & A. Baker” was started.
Fred, who came to England with Arthur in 1876, stayed for the rest of his life becoming a successful businessman in the City of London after finishing school.
James (Jim) the youngest son was educated at Robert College, which by this time had become the most influential school in Turkey. After a short training with his father in Constantinople he journeyed to London in 1887 to help his brother George Percival, in the London office of the Baker company.
In Constantinople another name had entered the business, that of Charles Edwards, a naval architect, the husband of Louise Baker. Although instructor at the Naval College in Halki at the time of their marriage in 1873, he soon joined his father-in-law’s business. He was subsequently taken into partnership which lasted until 1890 when George Baker and Charles Edwards set up separate firms, “G. & A. Baker” and “Edwards & Sons”. The Edwards family, Charles and his sons Middleton and Cecil, were to be prominent traders in their own right specialising in the export of oriental carpets with interests in the later O.C.M. company already described.4
The London Company
In 1874 James Baker died and G.P. Baker, his nephew, was sent to London to take his place as agent to the Constantinople firm. Although only eighteen at the time he had already spent three years working with his father in Turkey. “For the next four years” he wrote “I remained the agent to the firm, engaged in executing indents and seeing to the shipments, besides receiving consignments of various produce”.
For his twenty-first birthday in 1878, G.P. was given three months leave...
...Elizabeth, Maria’s eldest sister, remained in England and in 1856 married, in Bradford, the husband of one of her deceased sisters, a man called Percival. The Heywood, Percival and Pulman families were to play an important part in the lives and business interests of the Baker family.
The George Baker family
George and Maria Baker had nine children, of which two, Frederick born in 1859 and Albert, born in 1868, died in infancy. All the children were born in Turkey and their various registrations3 give some indication of the family’s whereabouts of their father’s trading status at each birth. The first five children, Louise (born in 1854); George Percival (1856); Henry (Harry) (1857); Frederick (1859) and Arthur (1861), were all registered on August 16th 1862 by George Baker “merchant of Galata”. Louise and George Percival were born in Therapia and the others in Pera. Frederick William (1862) was born at Galata and James (1864) and Amelia (1866) at Pera, their father describing himself as both “general dealer” and “general merchant”.
George Percival’s memoirs of childhood are anectodal but give a fascinating insight into the life of Europeans living abroad. “Their existence” described as Ruby Gray as having strong English middle-class Victorian flavour with unexpected “Eastern highlights”. Summers were spent by the Baker family on the island of Halki in the Marmora Sea and G.P. Baker remembers his parents’ first home at the Galata Tower near to the homes of the Heywood and Pulman families.
Education
As the eldest son, G.P. Baker’s education was experimental. From attending a Franciscan monastery where he could remember learning some Italian, he went, at the age of eight, to a school at Taksim, near the British Embassy. Run by a schoolmaster brought especially by the British community to Turkey in 1863, lessons were held in a large marquee left over from the Crimean War.
In 1886 Louise and G.P. were brought to England and Louise, who was twelve, was enrolled at a boarding school in Sydenham, her brother going to school close by, in Upper Norwood. Within a year Harry had joined his brother in England and another school was found for the boys. In the holidays the boys lived with their aunt Polly Pulman, who was now widowed and living in Balham with her children Edith, Leila, Percy and Charles, close to her widowed sister Elizabeth Percival and children Amy, Lily and Charles. The Pulman house became home for G.P. Baker throughout his school days and early years in business. He was very fond of his aunt Polly who became guardian angel to all the Baker boys as they visited London, and all the Baker, Pulman and Percival children were close friends, with G.P., as the oldest, acting as surrogate father to his cousins. This responsibility must have aged him before his years and, as Ruby Gray remarks, “he kept this feeling of family responsibility all his life, he was always ready to help anyone in the family, although perhaps apt to be overbearing at times, but his integrity was never questioned”.
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Harry Baker made good progress at school and, at the age of eighteen returned to Constantinople to work with “Uncle Heywood” in the mill. Eventually he took sole charge and remained there until his untimely death from cholera in 1906.
The opening of an American school (later to be called Robert College) at Roumeli Hissar on the Bosphorus enabled the younger Baker boys to be educated in Turkey, although all finished their studies in England. Arthur studied French and commercial subjects at London University and in France, in preparation for entering the business in Constantinople, where he returned in the early 1880s. In 1890 his father took him into partnership, and the firm “G. & A. Baker” was started.
Fred, who came to England with Arthur in 1876, stayed for the rest of his life becoming a successful businessman in the City of London after finishing school.
James (Jim) the youngest son was educated at Robert College, which by this time had become the most influential school in Turkey. After a short training with his father in Constantinople he journeyed to London in 1887 to help his brother George Percival, in the London office of the Baker company.
In Constantinople another name had entered the business, that of Charles Edwards, a naval architect, the husband of Louise Baker. Although instructor at the Naval College in Halki at the time of their marriage in 1873, he soon joined his father-in-law’s business. He was subsequently taken into partnership which lasted until 1890 when George Baker and Charles Edwards set up separate firms, “G. & A. Baker” and “Edwards & Sons”. The Edwards family, Charles and his sons Middleton and Cecil, were to be prominent traders in their own right specialising in the export of oriental carpets with interests in the later O.C.M. company already described.4
The London Company
In 1874 James Baker died and G.P. Baker, his nephew, was sent to London to take his place as agent to the Constantinople firm. Although only eighteen at the time he had already spent three years working with his father in Turkey. “For the next four years” he wrote “I remained the agent to the firm, engaged in executing indents and seeing to the shipments, besides receiving consignments of various produce”.
For his twenty-first birthday in 1878, G.P. was given three months leave...