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Brig.-Gen. C. D. Baker-Carr
Brigadier General Christopher D'Arcy Bloomfield Saltern Baker-Carr (1878-1949) was a British Army staff officer and military commander during World War I.
He was born on 3 March 1878 in Lanteglos,...view moreBrigadier General Christopher D'Arcy Bloomfield Saltern Baker-Carr (1878-1949) was a British Army staff officer and military commander during World War I.
He was born on 3 March 1878 in Lanteglos, Cornwall, England, the youngest of eight children of the Rev. Robert James Baker-Carr and his wife Rose Louisa Longmore Teesdale Baker-Carr. He married his first wife, Sarah de Witt Quinan, on 11 August 1902, and the couple had two sons, Christopher Jerome (1903-1970) and John D’Arcy (1906-1998), who went on to serve in the Royal Air Force during World War II and became a senior RAF Force commander during the 1960’s.
Brig.-Gen. Baker-Carr left the army before World War I with the rank of captain, but returned to the colours when the war broke out. His first post was as driver at the General Headquarters (GHQ), and his final appointment was as General Officer Commanding (GOC) with the 1st Tank Brigade—a remarkable progression, which would inspire the title of his memoirs, From Chauffeur to Brigadier, first published in 1930.
During his career, Brig.-Gen. Baker-Carr played a pivotal role in the development of British machine gun tactics and organisation. With the vital support of Lord Kitchener, and later of the Machine Gun Corps, he established the BEF Machine Gun School at Wisques in France on 22 November 1914 to train new regimental officers and machine gunners, both to replace those lost in the fighting to date and to increase the number of men with MG skills. A Machine Gun Training Centre was also established at Grantham in England.
Brig.-Gen. Baker-Carr passed away in Bacton, Cromer, Norfolk, England on 10 January 1949, aged 70.view less