Deaths in the Service
During the Christmas vacation reports have been received which add six names to the list of Princeton men who have given their lives in the service, making the total number so far reported 112. The six additional names which we add with the deepest regret to the number of Princeton’s honored dead are as follows:
HOBART AMORY HARE BAKER ‘14
WILMER LANDIS ‘13
ALAN W. LUKENS ’13
JOHN MACLEAN MAGIE ’92.
EDWARD McM. STANTON ’97.
GALBRAITH WARD ’15.
A cable message from Paris received by Percy R. Pyne, 2d, ’03 on Dec. 26 confirmed the report of the death of Captain Hobart A. H. Baker ’14 in an aeroplane accident ear Toul, France, on Dec. 21. Although several messages have been sent to France inquiring for details of his death, no additional information has been received at this writing. The press reports say that Captain Baker had received his orders to return to this country and expected to sail the day following his death.
The death of “Hobey” Baker under these circumstances, when he had gone safely through the war and was so soon to return, is even more distressing to his Princeton friends than if he had been killed in action. His death will cause universal regret not only throughout the Princeton family, but in that wider public which so much admired his achievements as an athlete and soldier, and the ideals of sportsmanship which he so scrupulously upheld and so splendidly exemplified in his brilliant but all too brief career.
All Princeton knows and admires “Hobey” Baker’s career as an athlete. The son of Alfred T. Baker ’85, himself a famous halfback, Hobart Baker was known as one of the best amateur hockey players in the country when he was still a schoolboy at St. Paul’s. he signalized his entrance to Princeton by his playing on the freshman football team, which that year defeated the Yale freshmen, and the following three years he greatly augmented the athletic tradition of his family by his playing at halfback on the varsity. He was not only a fine open field runner, he was a punter and dropkicker of conspicuous ability, and his coolness and always dependable sureness in catching punts may be said to have established a new standard in Princeton football. As a hockey player he was even more noted and it was largely due to his preeminence on the ice that Princeton won so many victories in that sport during his undergraduate years. In fact there was no branch of athletics in which he did not excel. Had it not been for the two-sports rule then in force, he would undoubtedly have been a member of the varsity baseball team, a branch in which he showed marked ability as a member of his freshman nine. After his graduation he developed unusual ability as a golfer. Joining the St. Nicholas Skating Club of New York after his graduation, for several seasons he was without a peer in the amateur hockey ranks of this country and was generally recognized as the equal of the best professional Canadian players. But it was not alone for his skill in athletics that “Hobey” Baker was so much admired; it was especially for the spirit in which he played all his games, a spirit of the utmost fairness toward all opponents. No finer example of the true sportsman has ever been developed in American athletics. Whatever game he played he always played it first of all for the joy of playing it.
At Princeton, he was an excellent student, a man who always stood for the best things, and who was greatly admired by undergraduates and faculty alike. After his graduation Captain Baker was with J. P. Morgan and Company in New York. He volunteered for the air service and has had much experience as an aviator before this country entered the war. After flying for about a year, chiefly at Mineola, he was commissioned and was sent overseas in the summer of 1917. On his services in the war we shall have an article in our next issue by Major Charles J. Biddle ’11, who was closely associated with Captain Baker in France and who has lately returned to this country.
Wilmer Landis ’13 is reported killed in action Nov. 10 in France, but no details have been received. He entered the service last May, was trained at Camp Meade and went overseas with the 316th Infantry. At the time of his establishment he was a member of the faculty of the High School of Bethlehem, Pa.
Captain Alan W. Lukens ’13. Co. G, 316th Infantry, 79th Division, has just been officially reported killed in action Sept. 29 in the attack on Montfaucon. He was the son of Lewis N. Lukens of Haverford, Pa., a nephew of Frank Lukens ’90 and Victor H. Lukens ’95, and a brother of Edward C. Lukens ’15, First Lieutenants, Co. I, 320th Infantry, and Lewis N. Lukens, Jr., ’17, First Lieutenant, Co. I, 317th Infantry.
Captain John Maclean Magie ’92, Q. M. R. C., A. E. F., died recently in France, of influenza. Captain magie trained at Plattsburg and upon receiving his commission in the Quartermaster’s Corps, was on duty at Camp Meade and in Boston until he went overseas last spring.
Edwin M. Stanton ’97 has been reported killed in action in France on Oct. 14, 1918.
After graduating at Princeton Mr. Stanton took his law degree at the University of Pennsylvania, and passed the Pennsylvania Bar Examination with unusual distinction. He practiced for a time in Pittsburgh, and then became a Lieutenant in the 13th U.S. Infantry, from which he was transferred to the Judge Advocate General’s Department with the rank of Captain. Several years before there was any thought of war in Europe he resigned his commission and resumed the practice of law in the West.
When the United States declared war on Germany Mr. Stanton was in Alaska. Although he was then over 42 years of age and was seriously troubled by rheumatism, he left for Washington as soon as possible to offer himself for military service in the field. It was probable that he could have obtained a National Army commission, but since this would have necessitated delay, and since at that time it was problematical how soon men in the National Army would see active service, Mr. Stanton preferred to enlist at once as a private in the regular infantry. After several physical examinations he was finally accepted in view of his previous military experience, and joined the 61st U.S. Infantry, going over in March, 1918.
Soon after his enlistment Mr. Stanton had been made Corporal, and then Sergeant, and when his regiment went into active service in France, shortly after landing, he was made “Top Sergeant” of his company. At present his family do not know on what parts of the western front his regiment was engaged, but he saw hard fighting. For service in the field he was recommended by his company and regimental officers for a commission. Orders of approval had been issued, but had not yet reached Mr. Stanton, when he was killed in action on Oct. 14th, possibly near the Bois de Rappe.
Mr. Stanton was not married. His nearest living relative is an only sister, Miss Sophy Carr Stanton, who is now in France, having worked in France and Italy continuously since July, 1916.
Mr. Stanton was the grandson of Edwin M. Stanton was the grandson of Edwin M. Stanton, the Secretary of War in Lincoln’s Cabinet, and was the son of Edwin L. Stanton, who, although he died when only 35 years of age, was one of the leaders of the U.S. Supreme Court Bar. Mr. Stanton inherited his ability, which was marked, from these prominent men, and was not only an excellent lawyer but was widely read in military subjects, economics, history and general literature. The Judge Advocate General under whom he served considered him one of the ablest men in the Corps, and often expressed to his family regret that he should have resigned.
Knowing by experience in the Philippines the hardships of service in the field, and feeling with dread that his physical condition was no longer equal to them, nevertheless, without hesitation or delay at the outset and without complaint under those hardships when they came, Mr. Stanton gave his services where he believed they were most needed, and his life to preserve his country and her honor.
The death is reported of Lieutenant Galbraith Ward ’15, of pneumonia, in France. It is with peculiar regret that we record the death of Lieutenant Ward, following so quickly that of his brother, Corporal Marquand Ward ’19. They were the only sons of Judge Henry Galbraith Ward and the late Mabel Marquand Ward of New York, a sister of Professor Allan Marquand ’74.
Lieutenant Ward served in the French Ambulance in 1916. That year he returned home and attended the Plattsburg Camp. In 1917 he enlisted and was trained at Camp Upton with the 306th Infantry.
CAPTAIN JOOHN VAN DOREN BEDINGER ’07, M. R. C.
The death of Dr. John Can Doren Bedinger ’07, Captain, M. R. C., recently reported in this column, was caused by pneumonia and meningitis on Oct. 20, in England.
Captain Bedinger responded to the first call of his country for physicians, leaving important hospital affiliations and a growing practice in his home city of Louisville, Ky., and attending the First Medical Officers’ Training Camp at Fort Oglethorpe, Ga. He was there commissioned First Lieutenant, as signed to the 113th Infantry train at Camp Shelby, Miss., and promoted to a captaincy in the spring of 1918.
He was in excellent health when he sailed from New York on Oct. 5, with his division, but the amount of sickness on the transport put a great strain on his company, which operated the hospital, and in his unreserved devotion to duty, Captain Bedinger finally fell sick the day before the ship reached its destination in an English port. His division pushed on to France, leaving him in a hospital in England, where he died three days after being disembarked.
THE DEATH OF LIEUTENANT EDWARD BARRY WALL ’16
The death of Lieutenant Edward Barry Wall ’16, in an airplane accident at Mather Field, Sacramento, Cal., on Dec. 5, 1918, which was recently announced in this column, is explained as follows:
He had finished instructing his pupils for the day and went up for a short flight. He was seen flying at about 1,500 feet by another instructor, who was about 500 feet above with a pupil. When the instructor looked again in Lieutenant Wall’s direction he did not see him and could not account for his sudden disappearance. The instructor descended and found Lieutenant Wall lying about fifteen feet from his plane with a fractured skull. Evidently his death was instantaneous.
A board of aviation officers after a careful investigation was unable to assign any cause for the accident. He was one of the most expert fliers at the field, had flown more than 500 hours and was markedly calm and resolute.
The most plausible conjecture which the investigating board could offer was that he became unconscious. These details were furnished Lieutenant Wall’s family by Lieutenant John Swain, who brought his body from the field to Columbus, Ohio, where Lieutenant Wall was buried.
Lieutenant Swain’s report of the singular affection and respect in which Barry Wall was held by officers and men at the field was a vivid tribute to his quiet force as well as to that spirit which latterly has been so nobly exemplified by the long roll of honor of her sacrifice and new renown.
Lieutenant Wall’s proficiency as an instructor of aviation directly prevented the realization of his keen desire to serve at the front.
Barry Wall was born July 28, 1893. He was the only child of Edward Barry Wall, Stevens ’76, and Fannie Mitchell Wall, of Columbus, Ohio, who both died before he was six months old. His grandfather was Edward Barry Wall ’48.
Barry Wall prepared for Princeton at St. George’s School, Newport, R. I. After graduating from Princeton he went to China with the Princeton Y. M. C. A. and as a part of that work taught English literature in the Chinese University at Peking. In September, 1917, he returned and entered the aeronautical school at Princeton, going from there to Love Field, Dallas, Texas, where he received his wings and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant. From there he went to an aviation school for instructors at Brooks Field, San Antonio, Texas. On July 1, 1918, he was ordered to Mather Field, where he taught advanced flying, acrobatics and aerial gunnery. He has passed his examinations and had been recommended for a first lieutenancy at the time of the declaration of the armistice. Following is a letter to him from his commanding officer at Mather Field, written the day before his death:
“Because of the demobilization of the Military Forces and for the reason that you will shortly depart from Mather Field and withdraw from active military service, I desire through this method to extend to you an expression of my appreciation of the services which you have rendered the Government and this School. Your loyalty and attention to your duties as an officer of this Post have been most satisfactory to me, and you are to be commended for your zeal in your work and the excellent spirit you have shown in giving your assistance to the accomplishment of the purpose for which this field was established.
“That the exigencies of the service required the use of your abilities here and, in consequence, you desire for overseas duty was not fulfilled, should not be considered in any way derogatory to you as a soldier or to the aid which you have rendered the Government during the emergency.
“I am proud to have been your commanding officer and I assure you that you carry into your future life my best wishes for your continued success.—DELOS C. EMMONS, Lieut Colonel, A. S. A.”
This was originally published in the January 8, 1919 issue of PAW.