File 017.1 - Fauna of British India birds Vol. V

Edward Charles Stuart Baker was born in 1864, in Bengal, India.

He was a British ornithologist, police officer, and author. He received his education from Trinity College in Stratford-upon-Avon, and in 1883, he followed in his father's footsteps and joined the Indian Police Service. He spent most of his career in India serving in the Assam Police, where he eventually rose to the rank of Inspector-General, commanding the force. In 1910, he was assigned to Special Criminal Investigation duty, and in 1911, he returned to England to take on the position of Chief Police Officer for the Port of London Police. He held this position until his retirement in 1925. For his services in this role during the First World War, he received an appointment as Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1920 civilian war honours list.

After retirement, he became Mayor of Croydon. He was an excellent tennis player and an enthusiastic big-game hunter. During his hunting expeditions, he lost his left arm to a panther in Silchar, Assam, was tossed by a gaur, and trampled by an Indian rhinoceros. In his spare time, he studied and collected birds of India. He authored several books, including The Indian Ducks and Their Allies (1908), Game Birds of India and Ceylon (1921), The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma, Birds (1922; eight volumes), Mishmi Man-eater (1928), The Nidification of the Birds of the Indian Empire (1932), and Cuckoo Problems (1942). He was a proud owner of nearly 50,000 Indian birds' eggs, and he donated part of his collection to the Natural History Museum. He spent a lot of time working on the egg collections from India and Thailand at the museum. His eight-volume contribution to The Fauna of British India, Including the Ceylon and Burma series became the standard reference work on the subject. He sold about 152 specimens of his collection to the private museum of Tzar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria. He also served on government advisory committees on bird protection and was the honorary secretary and treasurer of the British Ornithologists' Union from 1913 to 1936.

In 1896, he married Ethel May Roffey (1870–1966). He died on April 16, 1944, in Croydon, Surrey, England.