John Baker, doyen of Britain’s golf writers, died suddenly on Thursday, 22 January at his home in Worthing, Sussex, at the age of 93. He had just completed writing a tribute to Stanley Lincoln, his closest working colleague and fellow veteran member of the Association of Golf Writers (AGW), who was 89 on his death only a fortnight earlier.
The legendary Bernard Darwin voted John into the AGW in 1946 as he covered a tournament at Southport, and while becoming the oldest and most senior Member of the association in the course of the next 58 years, his great contribution to golf was recognised with the award of Life Membership.
It was as a general news cub reporter with the Press Association in the early 1930s that John’s journalistic skills, perseverance and interest in golf combined to make his name known. On a visit to Sunningdale, he saw the then Prince of Wales about to play a private match against the American amateur Charles Sweeney. Royal Protocol, and bodyguards, prevented him from becoming a lone spectator for the chance to write an exclusive story. On being made aware of John’s disappointment, the Prince offered a compromise. John could write a report providing it was submitted for approval before publication.
John agreed, and at the finish of the match handed his report, hurriedly written in pencil on notebook paper, to a bodyguard. To his dismay, The Royal party left Sunningdale without giving him back his story or the approval he needed. Two days later, however, on crested paper, beautifully typed, his story was returned to him with Royal approval.
It was this act that explained a ritual which later mystified his colleagues. Whenever the Prince was on official duties, and he saw John among the Press Corps, he always made a point of giving him a knowing nod and smile of recognition of a journalist to be trusted.
World War 11 interrupted John’s Fleet Street career and he became a fire fighter in East London and the Docks. He survived the most appalling experiences about which he was never willing to talk. “Best forgotten,” he would insist when asked.
When peace was restored, John returned to Fleet Street and, subsequently joined the Exchange Telegraph news agency. As the growth of golf and the birth of The European Tour commanded more and more of his time, he and Stanley Lincoln, the Press Association golf correspondent, became an inseparable combination, and the most industrious writers in the Press Tent.
John is survived by Isabel, his wife of 40 years. By a previous marriage he had a daughter, Joan, who lives in Australia, three grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.
The funeral service will be at Worthing Crematorium (on the A24) at 10.20 a.m., Friday, 30th January with a reception after at Worthing Golf Club.
