Shirley Waldemar Baker (1836[1] – 16 November 1903) was a missionary and premier of Tonga.
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Baker was born in London[1], England of a Devonshire family. He studied medicine, went to Australia in 1852 as a stowaway. He worked as a farm hand, miner and apothecary's assistant on the goldfields in Victoria. Baker decided to become a missionary and in 1860 was ordained and sent to Tonga by the Australian Wesleyan conference.
Baker became head of the mission, and was involved in the councils of King George Tupou I, who made him his prime minister. A disagreement arose with the Wesleyan authorities at Sydney in 1879, and Baker founded an independent body under the title of the "Free Church of Tonga". Some of the natives, however, were loyal to their original church and much strong feeling was aroused, which resulted with an attempt to shoot Baker in 1887. He escaped unhurt but his son and daughter were both wounded. Six Tongans were executed for this crime[1], and many were deported to other islands. In 1888 the Rev. George Brown visited Tonga to inquire into the position and to endeavour to heal the breach between the two churches. He did not succeed and his reports show that Baker was using his power to the disadvantage of those who were not adherents of the Free Church. In 1890 Sir John Bates Thurston visited Tonga and deported Baker at short notice to Auckland for being 'prejudicial to the peace and good order of the Western Pacific'.
Baker lived in Auckland for some years but suffered financial losses in the 1890s slump. Baker paid a short visit to Tonga in 1897, settled there again in 1900, and died there on 16 November 1903. His grave and monument still stand as a touristical attraction in Pangai on Lifuka, Haʻapai.
Baker's side of the case may be found in Mennell's Dictionary of Australasian Biography, published in 1892. An opposing view is in Basil Thomson's The Diversions of a Prime Minister, pp. 3 to 25. R. L. Stevenson who called Baker "the defamed and much accused man of Tonga" found him "highly interesting to speak to" (Vailima Letters, p. 41).
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