Special Ladiesspecial Island

A Memory of Cowes.

My late father Donald Jack Baker was born at Cowes on the 18/8/1910, he would later become my father in Bulawayo, Rhodesia (Now Zimbabwe) on the 20/6/1940.

Through no fault of our father we children grew up in homes and were later fostered out. All through the years we received little parcels from our grandmother and great grandmother Eva Irene, and Emily Ada Baker nee Baggs. I have recently stood at their unmarked graves and wept for what could not be, how I would have loved to embrace them and thank them for all the kindness, and for the wonderful man who would become our father. At some stage my grandmother sent me a little disc for a neck chain, it had a little triangular flag on it and I understood from my father that this was the emblem of one of the yacht clubs on the island, I lost it in chicken litter and wept for months.

Our father never returned to the island, but the island should know of this wonderful man, he remained a truly proud Englishman in every way possible, instilling in his 5 children a love of England and its history, he made us proud to be part British.

I have one great sadness, our precious father was illegitimate, and therefore I have only been able to do the Matriarchal line of my family history, now at 71 years of age I wish that I could find some clue that would reveal to some other family the good man who is part of their history and his story as it evolved in Africa.

One of my dearest memories is the memory of the Eve I think Christmas or New Year when His Majesty The King would address the nation after the BBC News. My father would tune in and we would all be stood at attention, 'Do You Ken John Peel' would play, Big Ben would chime, the lady or man would announce "16 hours Greenwich mean time, here is the News". After the News the King would speak, and while he did my father would fill little tot measures with Port or Sherry. After the speech the national anthem would play and while it did we quivered with attention, as our father came down the line of little people, presenting each one with a filled tot measure. At the end of the anthem he would announce "Ladies and Gentlemen, raise your glasses and drink a toast to His Majesty The King". Needless to say none of us ever had a drink problem in later life! He would then toast everything from cow pats to Wordsworth, until not a drop of drink was left in those little glasses.

Most of my family came from Shalfleet, Yarmouth, and Cowes, and as I visited these places I sensed that they knew of the great love that filled my soul both for them and their posterity. I am deeply proud of my heritage and as I compile the family tree which will when I pass away be sent to Africa, I hope that I will be able soon to get permission to mark the graves of my Ggandmothers, and that they and all of their posterity will know where they lay and the part they and their son and grandson played in the happiness of 5 little children many thousands of miles from the island. God Bless The Isle Of Wight and all her people.

---

---