Captain Valentine Henry Baker MC AFC (24 August 1888 – 12 September 1942), nicknamed "Bake",[1] served in all three of the British Armed Forces during the First World War.

Doctors informed him that any operation to remove it might be fatal, so Baker told them to "leave it alone then", and he lived the remainder of his life with it in his neck.

[4] Baker was assigned to 41 Squadron, with which he spent his entire nine-month combat flying career, during which time he was reputed to have shot down several German aircraft.

[5]The RFC decided that his skills as a flying ace would be best used to train new pilots, and in June 1917 he became a flight instructor, teaching at Turnberry, Catterick, and Cramlington.

He was awarded the Air Force Cross in the 1918 King's Birthday Honours;[7] the announcement was made the same day that the medal was instituted.

[9] His final job for the military was in the Secret Codes Department, Air Ministry, from May 1920 until he resigned his commission on 1 October 1921, and was permitted to retain the rank of captain.

During a test flight of the Martin-Baker MB 3 prototype from RAF Wing in Buckinghamshire during the late afternoon of 12 September 1942, the engine seized and he was forced into an emergency landing, during which the aircraft struck a tree stump, cartwheeled through a hedge and he was killed.