Anne Baker (1) (1914–)

Anne Baker, née Salmond, was born just before the outbreak of World War I. Her parents were Sir Geoffrey Salmond, later the professional head of the Royal Air Force, and his wife Margaret Carr. Anne was educated at Oxford University, and lived with her parents in both Egypt and India. She married Valentine Baker, with whom she had five children. Anne Baker received a merit award from the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) in 2017 for more than 50 years of volunteer work and was awarded an MBE for her services in 2021. She was still fundraising at the age of 105. She was the author of several historical biographies: Morning Star (1972), the life of Florence Baker, wife of the explorer Sir Samuel Baker; Wings over Kabul: The First Airlift (1975), an account of the Kabul Airlift of 1928–1929, co-written with Sir Ronald Ivelaw-Chapman; A Question of Honour (1996), about Colonel Valentine Baker, an ancestor of her husband; and a biography of her father, From Biplane to Spitfire: The Life of Air Chief Marshal Sir Geoffrey Salmond (2003).