Alfred Max Baer 1896-1987
2nd Lieutenant Alfred Max Baer 5th Battalion Dorset Regiment
Alfred Max Baer was born in London, but his family were German and he had been brought up in a wealthy Jewish German tradition. Alfred was born in Hampstead in July 1896 to Samuel Baer, a metal merchant from Mergentheim, Wurttemberg, Germany who had become a British citizen in September 1893.
A few weeks later in October 1893, Samuel married Lillie Ida Wolff, the daughter of a wealthy Wine Merchant from Russia and his German wife. The marriage produced two children, Elsie born in 1895 and Alfred born in 1896. Sadly shortly after Alfred’s birth, and maybe as a direct result of it, Lillie died. Two years later, Samuel and Lillie’s younger sister Alice, were married in Mannheim, Germany and 3 days after that, Alice and Lillie’s father died, leaving his fortune to their mother and Samuel, despite him having sons of his own. Samuel and Alice had two sons – Alfred’s half brothers/cousins, Gerald born in 1903 and Leonard in 1906. They were taught by a German Governess.
Samuel was very successful and had business interests throughout the world, especially in the United States. His main company was Merton Metallurgical Company Limited, incorporated in 1907. There are numerous records of him crossing the Atlantic including in 1912 travelling on the Lusitania, which was later sunk by a U Boat and led to America entering the war. In 1921, Alice’s mother died, and again Samuel was a beneficiary in the Will. Samuel and Alice lived in some style, residing at the Dorchester Hotel in Park Lane from at least 1933. When Samuel died in 1939, he left an amassed fortune to Alice, Alfred and his brother of £318,811. Alice died in 1962. She was 85 and still living at the Dorchester.
Alfred probably went to Boarding School as he is missing from the 1911 Census. He enlisted at the start of the war and received his commission on 5th January 1915 in a Service Battalion of the Dorset Regiment. He joined the 18th Middlesex Battalion on 16th May 1916. Alfred appears to have been injured on 29th August 1916, when according to the War Diary he was hospitalised. He rejoined the Battalion on 22nd October 1916 and took command of A Company, as a result of which he was promoted to Lieutenant. He was hospitalised again on 16th December 1916 and returned on 6th August 1917 when he was posted to B Company. He was made a Captain in November 1917.
After the War, Alfred went into his father’s business becoming a metal merchant. In 1921 he married Olga Maude Howard, a farmer’s daughter from Cambridgeshire. Later that year they had a son, Derek Alfred Howard Baer and in 1927 a daughter, Felicity Ann Olga Baer. Alfred also appears to have maintained his links with Germany. In 1922 Alfred and Olga are recorded as travelling from Hamburg to Grimsby. They set up home in some style in an 8 bedroomed Grade II listed property at Rickling House, Quendon, near Saffron Walden in Essex. Local newspapers of the day record the family as being very much involved in local life – they funded repairs to the Parish Rooms and both Derek and Felicity were strong tennis players for their local club winning competitions as fas afield as Scotland.
During the Second World War, Arthur- surely Alfred?- worked for the British War Materials Commission, travelling to Washington DC on Government business in 1944. He died in Essex in 1987, aged 91, having been pre-deceased two years earlier by Olga.
1911. Would suggest that maybe he was at school in Germany, as not in the UK 1911C
1946. Alfred Max Baer travelled to Brazil- refind doc