Vincent Brice Carew Baker died in the jungle in Malaya on April 29th, 1944, at the age of 56.
He received his professional training at the Camborne School of Mines from 1906 to 1909 obtaining a first class Diploma of the School. He was awarded a first-class certificate, Cutler’s Company’s Prize and the Institute’s Silver Medal in the City and Guilds of London Institute’s examination in ‘Occurrence, raising and dressing of ores’, and held an I.M.M. Post-Graduate scholarship at the Great Boulder Proprietary mine, Kalgoorlie, W.A., from 1909 to 1911.
For seven months subsequently he was employed in prospecting in Western Australia for the same company, but in February, 1912, obtained an appointment as surveyor to Pahang Consolidated Co., Ltd., in the Federated Malay States. He became underground manager in November, 1913, of three of the company’s mines, becoming ten years later acting general superintendent and, in 1929, general manager on their lode tin mines in Malaya.
When the Japanese overran the country in December, 1941, he managed to escape into the jungle with his sister, and they eventually joined with the Chinese guerrillas. They both fell ill with malaria, however, and with the approach of the Japanese had to be left behind as the Chinese withdrew. They were not captured, but Mr. Baker died a few weeks later and his sister re-joined the guerrillas and fought with them until the Japanese surrender.
Mr. Baker was elected a Student of the Institution in 1909, and was transferred to Associateship in 1915 and to Membership in 1924.
See – Sixty Years of Tin Mining: A History of the Pahang Consolidated Company, 1906-1966, pp.34-5, 46.
Vol. 55, Trans I.M.M. 1945-6, pp. 559-60
