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Sunday, February 10, 2008

Florence Baker

(c.1836 - 1916)

This young Hungarian woman, aged 17 years old, was on the verge of being sold to a Turk by her ex-nurse, when renowned explorer, Samuel Baker, bought her and took her as his wife.

Florence accompanied Samuel on all his major travels, including his search for the source of the River Nile. Both had been given up for dead when, after many harrowing hardships, they finally regained contact with civilization to give details of one of the sources of the Nile - Lake Albert.

When Samuel returned to the Equatorial regions of the Nile and was given command of a military expedition to stop slave-trading, she still remained as his most constant companion and partner throughout all these many dangerous excursions.

Later, Samuel and Florence visited India, Japan and America.

Biography of Florence Baker from the National Portrait Gallery.

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