This is one of a series of posts to mark the international Rugby players who served in, and survived, The Great War. If anyone has further information on the men concerned, I’d be most grateful if it could be added to the thread. Gareth Baker, Harold (Harald?) William AM played for Australia Internationals: 3: 1914 NZ- NZ- NZ- Harold Baker was born on 29 September 1887 at Paddington, NSW. Played as a Lock for: Sydney, Eastern Suburbs, and Randwick. His first appearance for a Sydney Metropolitan XV was at fullback. He played 35 games for Sydney RFC before the club ceased to play in the district competition; he then switched to Eastern Suburbs, where he played 20 games before joining Randwick, where he played 10 games. In 1911 he played twice for NSW in Brisbane. He played for NSW 5 times. Harold Baker coached Randwick for eight seasons after the War, before moving to Queensland in 1930. He then represented Queensland on the Australian selection panel. Until his death he never missed an International match, and regularly watched Randwick. Profession: Physical culturist and later Company Director. War service: Second Lieutenant, 12th Australian Light Horse (6th Reinforcements). He broke his spine in a fall in the hold of the troopship HMAT SS Moldavia, after embarking on 2 October 1915, (the Australian Defence Force Academy record has him embarking on HMAT SS Hawkes Bay on 21 October) and was in plaster for 2 years and immobile for 4 years. He returned to Australia on 14 October 1916. Remarks: Brother of Reginald ‘Snowy’ Baker [2 caps]. Married to Nellie Innes Sarah Baker. He represented Australia at boxing, swimming, water polo and wrestling. Harold Baker was warded Albert Medal for bravery when, with fellow international Jimmy Clarken, he rescued eight surfers. He later became a leading boxing referee. He died on 17 October 1962
Here's his brother Snowy .... 1884 - 1953 Reginald Leslie “Snowy” Baker, Australia’s greatest all-round athlete, competed in 26 different sports, and excelled in all of them. He was an international footballer, swimmer, boxer and diver, and was in championship class as a horseman, rower, wrestler, polo and water polo player, track athlete, fencer and gymnast. He remains the only Australian to have represented the nation in three separate sports at the Olympic Games, and he played rugby union for Australia against the touring Great Britain team in 1904. At the London 1908 Olympics, he competed in the boxing, swimming and diving, winning a silver medal in the middleweight boxing division after losing narrowly on points in a hard-fought encounter with Britain’s J.W.H.T. (“Johnny Won’t Hit Today”) Douglas. Douglas, who earned his nickname as a stonewalling cricketer, later captained England on a Test tour of Australia. Baker’s Olympic boxing performance has been matched by only one other Australian – light-welterweight Grahame ‘Spike’ Cheney, who won silver in Seoul in 1988. Baker was a member (with swimmers Frank Beaurepaire, Theo Tartakova and Frank Springfield) of the Australian 4 x 200m freestyle relay team that won its heat and finished fourth in the final. He had little preparation for his springboard diving event, and finished sixth in his heat. Baker had a varied post-Olympic career, most notably as a boxing referee, boxing promoter, entrepreneur, writer, actor, film-maker, Hollywood stuntman and director of an exclusive country club in California. During the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles, he was both Australia’s team attache and a perceptive correspondent for the Sydney Referee.
