George Baker (judge)

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Sir George Gillespie Baker, OBE, PC (25 April 1910 – 13 June 1984) was a British judge who headed the Family Division of the High Court from 1971 to 1979 and sat as a High Court judge from 1961 to 1979. He also served on the British War Crimes Executive at the Nuremberg Trials as Assistant Adjutant General in 1945–46.

Education and early career
He studied at Glasgow Academy, Strathallan School and Brasenose College, Oxford (Honours Scholarship; Senator Hulme Scholar) and later became an Honorary Fellow of Brasenose. He was called to the bar by Middle Temple in 1932 and became Treasurer of the Inn in 1976.

Military and wartime service
At the start of World War II he joined the army, initially with the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment and was commissioned in the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) in 1940. He served as Deputy Assistant Adjutant General at the War Office (1941–42) and as Assistant Adjutant General with Allied Force Headquarters (1942–44). In 1945 he was Colonel 'A' of the 15th Army Group and served as Assistant Adjutant General on the British War Crimes Executive at the Nuremberg Trials (1945–46). In 1945 he unsuccessfully stood for Parliament in Southall as a Conservative candidate.

Legal career after the war
After the war he returned to the bar, largely on the Oxford Circuit. He was Recorder in Bridgnorth (1946–1951), Smethwick (1951–1952) and Wolverhampton (1952–1961). He was made a Queen's Counsel in 1952, Deputy Chairman of the Shropshire Quarter Sessions (1954–1971) and led the Oxford Circuit for seven years before his promotion to the High Court in 1961. His deep personal integrity was founded on his Presbyterian faith.