Baker served in World War I in the New Zealand forces that took Samoa in 1914 but contracted pleurisy shortly afterwards and was discharged.
[1] Baker recovered from his illness and was able to resume his cricket career for Wellington in December 1914, when he scored 119 and 72, top-scoring in each innings, against Auckland.
[7] Baker was an opening batsman who possessed "great defence and patience, which is heart-breaking to bowlers and fieldsmen alike".
[8] But he could also play aggressively, as he did when he scored 124 and put on 252 for the second wicket in about two and a half hours with Ernest Beechey against Auckland in 1918–19.
[9] He made his third and last first-class century in 1923–24, when he scored 143 against Otago, putting on 227 for the second wicket in three hours with Bert Kortlang.