Source: Michael Doyle Their Name Liveth For Evermore: The Great War Roll of Honour for Leicestershire and Rutland.
He was the son of Adam Baker. William Frederick was born in 1883 in Bromley, Kent. In April 1911 William was employed as a domestic gardener and was residing as a boarder at Maplewell Road, Woodhouse Eaves, Leicestershire. On the 9th April 1912, William married Louisa Elizabeth Sanderson in the Priory Church, Deeping St. James, Lincolnshire, Louisa was born on the 27th January 1888 in Deeping St. James. William’s widow Louisa, was awarded a weekly Army Pension for herself of thirteen shillings and nine pence to commence on the 29th October, 1917.
NOTE: Research has failed to discover the family census returns for April 1891 or March 1901, and as a consequence there is no information available relating to the family’s whereabouts from William’s birth in 1883, until his appearance in the April 1911 census return when he was recorded as residing as a boarder in Woodhouse Eaves, Leicestershire.
William’s Army enlistment documents do not survive, all that is known of his military service is that he enlisted into the North Staffordshire Regiment, being allotted the service number 27932, and was posted as a Private to that Regiment’s Depot for training, subsequently being posted to the 7th Battalion. The date and location of his entry into the theatre of war is unknown, however as he was not recorded on the medal rolls for the 1914-15 Star, it must be assumed that it was at some time after the 31st December 1915. The 7th Battalion first landed in Mesopotamia in the 29th February 1916. Nothing further however is known of his military service until he was officially recorded as being killed in action on the 29th March 1917, in Mesopotamia while serving with the 7th Battalion of the North Staffordshire Regiment. His body was never recovered and he is commemorated on the Basra Memorial to the missing in modern day Iraq. William was awarded the British War Medal and Victory Medal.