George Peter Baker was a consultant physician at the Mayday Hospital, Croydon. He was born in Oxford, the son of Charles William Baker, a bank manager, and Esther Nora née Pearson. He was educated at Beaumont House School and Brighton College, and then went to Trinity College, Cambridge, as a senior exhibitioner. He had originally intended to become a research chemist, and studied organic chemistry, gaining his MSc in 1939. He subsequently decided to become a doctor, gaining a place at Guy’s. He qualified in 1942, having won three of the major undergraduate prizes. He held junior posts at Guy’s, and was called up in 1943. He served for three years in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, in North Africa and the Middle East. In 1945 he became a squadron leader.

Following demobilisation, he returned to Guy’s, becoming an assistant clinical pathologist and medical registrar. From 1949 to 1952 he was a first assistant at St George’s Hospital. In 1952, he was appointed as a consultant general physician in Croydon, and later became chairman of the hospital medical committee. He succeeded in upgrading the quality of the service at the hospital, which, before the NHS, had been severely under-resourced. From 1959 he also held consultant appointments at Purley and Warlingham Park hospitals. He was also chief medical officer to Hill Samuel Life Assurance for many years. He retired in 1979.

He remained unmarried. He donated funds for a ‘George Peter Baker prize’, awarded to the top finalist in the MB Cambridge examination.

RCP editor

[Brit.med.J, 2003 327 1409; gkt gazette December 2003, p.200-201]