Richard Baker RIP

One of the television icons of my childhood and early adult hood died in hospital this morning at the age of 93.

Lieutenant-Commander (RNR) Richard Baker OBE, RD, served at sea during World War II including escort duty in a minesweeper during the Arctic Convoys taking supplies to Russia. This was one of the most unpleasant and dangerous theatres of war in which British forces were involved, and in 2015 Baker received the Ushakov Medal from the Russian government in recognition of this service.

Sadly there are not too many instances of British citizens being decorated by the Russian government with the full support and agreement of our own, but this was one of them and I think it is positive that the fact that our countries fought together against the evil of Nazism and the sacrifices made on both sides are not entirely forgotten.

Baker remained a member of the Royal Naval Reserve after the war, including his time at the BBC and I recall one incident in which he managed to combine his BBC and navy reserve roles - the navy was taking part in an important event which was going to be broadcast, and I remember him doing the broadcast from the superstructure of an RN ship - IIRC it might have been the helicopter cruiser HMS Tiger - in his naval officer's uniform, explaining that he had been able arrange the his "RNR time" at the same time as the event which was being broadcast so he could do both at once.

Baker certainly did serve on HMS Tiger while doing his "RNR Time" and at the risk of triggering one of the people who sometimes posts comments on this blog, during those periods of service he personally claimed one of the Islands of the Chagos Archipelago for the British Crown.

HMS Tiger was the flagship of a Royal Navy squadron which had been sent to show the flag in the Far East, and on the way home the squadron stopped at the Diego Garcia naval base on 30th October 1973. Richard Baker was doing his RNR time, and took the opportunity to take one of Tiger's Sea King helicopters on a trip to Danger Island, which is the westernmost and the southernmost island of the Great Chagos Bank, which is the world's largest coral atoll structure, and claim it for the Crown.  (Danger Island was not then, and as far as we know never has been inhabited, certainly there was no permanent settlement there during the period from the 18th to the mid 20th centuries when some of the islands if the Chagos Archipelago were.) 

When the war ended Richard Baker resumed his interrupted studies at the University of Cambridge and after graduating, worked briefly as an actor and as a teacher before joining the BBC, initially presenting classical music on the BBC Third Programme.
He introduced the first BBC television news broadcast on 5 July 1954, although John Snagge read the actual bulletin. He was also closely associated with classical music, and presented many music programmes on both television and radio, including, for many years, the live broadcast from the Last Night of the Proms. He was a regular panellist on the classical music quiz Face the Music
Baker made cameo appearances in three episodes (30, 33 and 39) of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" and, of course, was one of the BBC newsreaders who took part in the 1977 Morecambe and Wise Christmas show. He also featured in a wide range of other TV and Radio performances, particularly children's programmes and classical music broadcasts.


He died this morning at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. In response to his death, fellow BBC journalist John Simpson tweeted: "Richard Baker, who has just died, was one of the finest newsreaders of modern times: highly intelligent, thoughtful, gentle, yet tough in defence of his principles."




Rest in Peace.

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