Baker, Donald Arthur

Title

Baker, Donald Arthur
D A Baker

Description

187 items. Donald Arthur Baker (b. 1921) travelled from Southern Rhodesia to England in 1940 to join the Royal Air Force. Trained as a pilot in 1941 he was operational with 144 Squadron at RAF North Luffenham flying Hampdens. He was shot down on 5 November 1941 and remained a prisoner of war mostly in Stalag Luft 3 until 1945. He return to farm in Southern Rhodesia after the war. The collection contains letters to his mother throughout the war as well as other correspondence and documents including his prisoner of war log with photographs and notes.

The collection was loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by June Baker Maree and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.

Date

2018-11-13

Publisher

IBCC Digital Archive

Rights

This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.

Identifier

Baker, DA

Collection Items

Map of German prisoner of war camps
Map with handwritten annotations for some camps including Dulag Luft, Stalag Luft 1 (mistakenly labelled Stalag Luft II), Stalag Luft 3, Stalag Luft 6 and Stalag 8B

Telegram to Donald Baker's parents
Informs them that Donald arrived in London and is very fit.

Telegram from Donald Baker to his parents
Sends that he arrived in London very fit, letter follows.

Telegram to Donald Baker's parents from Red Cross
Advises son arrived in London looking very fit.

Telegram to Donald Baker's parents
Sends Donald liberated well, expect him here soon.

Item separator card
Blue card. 'Letter from London "Free at last", 10 May 1945'

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Blue card. 'July 1944-Dec 44, POW'.

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Blue card 'Han-July 1944 - POW, 8 Letters'.

Letter from Rhodesian air training group to Donald Baker's mother
Quotes a cable from air ministry that Donald Baker was promoted to flight lieutenant with effect from 26 June 1942.

Item separator card
Blue card. Dates of 16 letters January to August 1943. January 1943 POW letters.

Telegram to Donald Baker's parents
Sends Donald still alive, thank god.

Letter from Red Cross to Donald Baker's mother
Confirms that message was sent to her quoting a message from her son that said from senior British officer, Stalag Luft 3 on behalf of her son that there was no truth in any information of his death.

Letter from Rhodesian air training group to Donald Baker's parents
Confirms that their son, previously reported as having died was now reported to be in the best of health.

Telegram to Donald Baker's parents
Sends 'sorry similar news, Baggett inquiring particulars Geneva advised done'.

Item separator card
Blue card 'Aug-12942, Reports of desth'.

Item separator card
Green card 'POW letters Jan 1942'.

Telegram to Donald Baker's parents
Send that parcels of books and cigarettes have been sent to P/O Baker. Asks for prisoner of war number and address.

Telegram to Donald Baker's parents
Sends greeting to all.

Letter from Rec Cross to Donald Baker's mother
Informs her they have forwarded letter to her son and gives his address at Dulag Luft.

Red Cross list of articles suitable for inclusion in personal parcels
Full list of articles allowed for inclusion. Notes that list of contents is to be included.

Item separator card
Green card 'Dulag Luft, First POW letter, 10 Nov 41'.

Letter to Donald Baker's father from Station Commander RAF Luffenham
Informs him that they have heard from the red cross that his son was a prisoner of war.

Letter to Mrs Baker from Red Cross
Informs her that they have no news of her son's whereabouts. Asks for his details and suggests they write to Geneva or she send telegram.

Prisoner of war letter from Donald Baker
Request that addressee send him uniform, shirts, shoes and socks as well as photographs. Also mentions other items of clothing, financial matters and instructions to redirect mail. Asks them to keep personal belongings and send the odd Rhodesian…
View all 195 items

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