Anthony Edward Baldwin was born on 18 April 1900, the youngest of the three children of Edward Thomas Baldwin (1847-1937) and Emily Henry Louise Stoker (1866-1936). His birth was registered in the 2nd quarter of 1900 in the Marylebone registration district. On 16 May 1900 he was baptised at St Matthew's Church, Marylebone, where the baptismal register shows the family residing at 1 Gloucester Place, Marylebone and that his father was a barrister-at-law.
When the 1901 census was undertaken his parents were shown as visitors at Tregenna Castle Hotel, St Ives, Cornwall, whilst he and his two siblings: Dorothy Ida Desiree Baldwin (1893-1940) and Hugh Reginald Baldwin (1898-1918) were recorded as visitors at the home of lodging house keeper Mary E. Newport at 17 Wellington Crescent, Ramsgate, Kent.
Both he and his brother were described as a schoolboys in the 1911 census, boarding at the Parkfield Preparatory School, Butlers Green, Haywards Heath, West Sussex, whilst his parents and elder sister were living in a 24 roomed property at 1 Gloucester Place, Portman Square, Marylebone, together with a butler, a lady's maid, a cook, two house-maids, a kitchen maid and a footman.
He was appointed as Midshipman on 1 January 1916 and was serving aboard HMS Queen Mary at the Battle of Jutland when he was killed in action, aged 16 years, on 31 May 1916. Only 18 survivors were picked up and he was amongst the 1,266 officers and men who were lost. As he has no known grave he is commemorated on Panel 11 of the Portsmouth Naval Memorial, Clarence Esplanade, Southsea, PO5 3NT. He was posthumously awarded the British War Medal 1914-1918 and the Victory Medal.
He is shown as 'Baldwin A.E. "HMS Queen Mary" Midshipman R.N.' on the Quebec Chapel WW1 war memorial at the Church of The Annunciation, Bryanston Street, Marylebone and is also commemorated on both the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's website and the Imperial War Museum's Lives of the First World War website.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
