User:Meggalie/Lady Florence Baker

Lady Florence Baker Lady Florence Baker (1841-1916).

Florenz Barbara Maria Baker was the first female explorer of Africa.

Florence, whose beauty and courage, combined with her love for Sam, made her, despite the ambiguities of her situation, one of the most ‘liberated’ women of the Victorian era. She was 17, very beautiful, golden haired and a slave, when she first set eyes on her future husband and lifelong companion on travels and adventures into Africa.

Childhood

According to stories handed down through the Baker family, Florence was born on August 6, 1841 (but more probably 1845) in Nagyenyed, Austro-Hungary (today Aiud, Romania) and baptised Florenz Barbara Maria. Most likely the daughter of a Hungarian Szekely officer of German aristocracy in Transylvania with name Finnian von Sas (Hungarian: Szász) and related to the noble von Sass family. She was very young, when, during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, “her father and brothers were killed in front of her eyes” and her nurse managed to help her escape to a refugee camp in Vidin, (Widdin) Bulgaria, where, after her nurse married and left her, she was abducted and sold to an Armenian slave merchant, who groomed her for the Harem.

Relationship, Marriage and Travel

Sir Samuel White Baker was so struck by this girl, who was destined for the Ottoman Pasha of Vidin, he outbid the Pasha’s agent and bought her. They almost certainly held a marriage ceremony, although no papers, if there were any, still exist, most probably in Bucharest, before travelling onto Dubrushka and Samuel gave her Deathhis word that they would re-marry after returning to England.

She already spoke German, Hungarian and Romanian, but Sam taught her English and they learnt Arabic in Abyssinia together, she rode camels, mules and horses and carried pistols when in the wilds.

First Expedition

Florence refused to stay in Europe when Sam was commissioned by the Khedive of Egypt to help suppress the slave trade in the regions of South Khartoum and in the White Nile valley and also to civilize the territory South of the Gondokoro, with the blessing of the Prince of Wales, and she insisted in accompanying her husband on his travels.

They went from Hungary to Abyssinia through Khartoum, down to the Nile to Lakes Victoria and Albert to discover the source of the Nile, with many adventures on the way and back again to Victorian Britain. (see Sir Samuel White Baker) Everywhere she went, all admired her, and the people of Unyoro gave her the name “Myadue” (Morning Star), she was also called “Nyadwe” and “Anyadue” (Daughter of the Moon), because of her beautiful blonde hair, by other tribes. Samuel was known as Baker Pasha and even in the 1970’s she and Sam were still remembered by the people on their route as their stories have been handed down through families and told throughout the interior of Africa.

As promised, they married again in England, when they returned, in 1865, much to the astonishment of his family. His four daughters Edith (10), Constance (12), Agnes (14) and Ethel (17), adored her immediately, but his sister Min took a while to come round. Sam was knighted, but Queen Victoria would not receive Florence, because of rumours that they were not married, before they arrived in England.

Second Expedition

In 1869, they next journeyed to Egypt as the Prince of Wales and the Kedive decided Sir Samuel should be Governor General of the Nile Basin to help suppress the despicable slave trading in the lower regions. Unfortunately this was not popular with the Egyptian officials who were involved in the slave trading and they did their utmost to thwart Sam’s every move.

Whilst they were travelling Sir Samuel wrote: “My heart has often ached for poor Florence, who has suffered so rough a time. For 130 miles she marched on foot… sometimes marching 16 miles in one stretch through gigantic grasses and tangled forests. She was always close behind me carrying ammunition in the midst of constant fighting – lances sometimes almost grazing her…. My only fear was for her. At night a bundle of damp grass was the only bed – no food beside sweet potatoes and plantains… No sooner had we arrived at Fatiko than Florence was in the midst of a storm of bullets, which happily avoided her. Through all these trials she has, thank God, been unscathed either by sickness or accident and she had always been my little Prime Minister to give good counsel in moments of difficulty or danger..”

Back to England

Four years and many adventures later, they arrived back in Cairo and then set sail to England to a triumphant return, made more poignant by the fact that for three months they had been presumed dead. They never went back to Africa, although Sir Samuel was asked by General Charles (China) Gordon to organize the relief of Khartoum but as Florence could not go and he had promised her never to go without her, he declined. Unfortunately, Gordon returned to Khartoum and fatefully appointed the treacherous Abou Saood to his staff.

Death

Sir Samuel Baker died of a heart attack, at the age of 72, in November 1893 and “Flooey, how can I leave you”, were his last words. She lived for another 20 years. She died on March 11, 1916 at the estate she had shared with her husband in Sandford Orleigh, Devon. She was 74 years old and was buried with her husband, who died 23 years earlier, in the Baker family vault at Grimley, near Worcester, although her name, sadly, was never recorded.