Ipoh World

Charles Alma Baker was born in Otago, New Zealand on 6th January 1857, the fifth child and third son of Andrew and Matilda Baker. He married Florence, the daughter of Sir Frederick Whittaker, leading politician, lawyer and land speculator. However, on one of his surveying trips, he also fathered a child with Maria Nikora, a “high born woman of the Whakatohea tribe” and not long after at the end of March 1890 (possibly because he had to) he and Florence left New Zealand for India.

They sailed on the Te Kapo, for the first leg to Singapore, but arriving late they missed their next ship which had already sailed for Ceylon and on discovering that there was a great need for surveyors in Perak to support the ever growing tin mining industry, they decided to abandon the idea of India and head for the Kinta Valley. Thus Perak and particularly Batu Gajah became the Baker’s home from 1890 to his demise in 1941, although he travelled extensively, particularly to New Zealand during this time.

After Auckland and the high society life they were used to Perak must have been quite a shock. However, they chose Batu Gajah, the administrative centre of the Kinta District, with its European population of up to 30 (including some 6 or 7 women) for at least it had a European Club and the Land Office that needed surveyors. He soon secured his first contract, part of the road from Taiping to Penang. Plenty more contracts arrived, some of which he carried out in partnership with William Kellie Smith. Florence of course stayed at home but was joined by her sister Emily who soon married Noel Walker, later Sir Noel, a government officer in Kuala Lumpur. As mines and mining increased, Baker took on all government surveys of prospective mining lands which forced him to recruit staff. His lucrative business grew to a level that even the elite members of the colonial service found difficult to keep up and in August 1894 he decided to build a house to match his status. The Perak Pioneer reported:

“Mr Alma Baker is building a fine house facing the Race Course, to be called, probably, Goodwood or Ascot, or some appropriate name of the kind - or maybe, ‘the Bakeries’.”

Historians will recognize that “Alma” was the name of the battle where British and French troops defeated the Russians during the Crimean War. Because of this, the name became very popular and in Dunedin (where the Bakers first landed) mountains, rivers had their name changed to record the victory. Even the Baker’s cottage there was named Alma. Consequently it was not surprising that when Charles was born he became Charles Alma Baker, a name that seems to have become more important to him as years passed for after signing himself ‘C A Baker’ for many years he changed to ‘Alma Baker’, a practice he kept until his last days.

At the end of 1894, while their house was being completed the Bakers (Floss and Barney) travelled to Ceylon, their original 1890 destination. On return they were able to move into their grand home and, as status decreed, start to entertain in a manner that became the rich. In 1895, the Perak Pioneer reported:

"Mr and Mrs Alma Baker and a few friend are on a two days picnic to the sulphur springs near Tanjong Rambutan, North of Ipoh."

However, in 1897, E W Birch, the British resident, although socially a friend of Barney, instituted an enquiry into the surveying monopoly that Baker held. The result was that his government contract was terminated with a settlement of GBP3,600 (three times the annual salary of Birch himself). That after 7,500 individual survey plans, plus district plans and maps! Baker turned to mining.

During his surveying days, Baker had wisely gathered some major mining concessions of his own in the Kinta Valley and these were worked by his company with reasonable success, but the key to his mining credibility came on his land at Gunong Lano, near Simpang Pulai in the Sungei Raia district, where exceedingly rich deposits provided him with the ability to reinvest a huge fortune in the new and expanding rubber industry.

Ahead of his time, while most mining was done by hand, he was a great believer in the dredge as the most effective method of grubbing the precious ore from the ground. Indeed he twice proposed to risk his own capital to prove his ideas, but in both cases prospectors established that there was no tin to mine in these areas. Nonetheless he continued to mine more and more concessions from 1904 to the end of the First World War, often leaving Malaya for Australia, New Zealand or Britain for both business and pleasure (particularly fishing). Floss and their daughter Julitha (or Judy as she was known) who was born in 1903, would always accompany him on these trips, complete with servants and a nurse (later a companion) for Judy.

Back in 1894, on his way to Ceylon, Baker had bought a book at Penang railway station. It was entitled “All About Para Rubber” and soon convinced him that Malaya was ideal for planting rubber. In Ceylon he arranged to have ten sacks of rubber seeds prepared for him to take back to Malaya and on return applied to the government to lease 10,000 acres of agricultural land, half just south of Batu Gajah and the remainder at Krian in Upper Perak. However, Sir Frank Swettenham, then the Acting High Commissioner, was not a supporter of rubber at the time and although the lease was granted Baker was not allowed to plant rubber on it. He abandoned the project.

In 1906 with Gunong Lano providing the funds, Barney again embarked on rubber planting and with some difficulty acquired a lease from the government for 2,000 acres and with another 1,165 acres obtained from Harewood he founded Kinta Valley Estate and in the first two years 1,000 acres was planted with rubber. Despite the depression, falling rubber prices from time to time and a certain amount of financial overstretching, the first rubber was tapped at the Kinta Valley Estate in 1911 and with the profits he bought a necklace and brooch for Florence his faithful supporter and wife. By 1914 with the whole estate in production and the price of rubber booming a new factory, smokehouses and ponds had to be constructed to manage the production of rubber sheets for export.

By 1919 Baker had invested GBP70,000 in rubber production at Kinta Valley Estate and another GBP60,000 in Pondok Tanjong. In 1919 Kinta Valley Estate produced227 tons of dried rubber sheets while Pondok Tanjong provided140 tons. But as he always had done, Baker felt it was time to move on to other pursuits, many out of Perak, while leaving his local businesses in capable hands. This he did involving himself in supporting the efforts of the two world wars, game fishing, horse racing and latterly farming in New Zealand. He passed away in Penang in 1941 and is buried in God's Little Acre, Batu Gajah.

The photographs show, from left to right:

Charles Alma Baker in Court Dress for the presentation of his CBE at Buckingham Palace in 1919, and

Florence Baker in 1916.

To know more about the Book "Imperial Patriot", click here.

To read more about Charles Alma Baker and his parents in New Zealand, click here.

To read more about William Kellie Smith, click here.

To read more about Alma Baker's award of the CBE, click here.

To see the last resting place of Alma Baker, click here.