Valentine Baker Valentine Baker ( also known as Baker Pasha ) ( 1827 – 1887 ) , Was a British soldier , and a younger brother of Sir Samuel Baker . Biography . He was educated in Gloucester and in Ceylon , and in 1848 entered the Ceylon Rifles as an ensign . Soon transferred to the 12th Lancers , he saw active service with that regiment in the 8th Cape Frontier War of 1852 — 1853 . In the Crimean War Baker was present at the Battle of Chernaya River and at the fall of Sevastopol , and in 1859 he became major in the 10th Hussars , succeeding only a year later to the command . This position he held for thirteen years , during which period the highest efficiency of his men was reached , and outside the regiment he did good service to his arm by his writings . He went through the wars of 1866 and 1870 as a spectator with the German armies , and in 1873 he started upon a famous journey through Khorasan . Though he was unable to reach the Khanate of Khiva the results of the journey afforded a great deal of political , geographical and military information , especially as to the advance of Russia in central Asia . In 1874 he was back in England and took up a staff appointment at Aldershot . Less than a year later Colonel Baker ’ s career in the British army came to an untimely end . He was arrested on a charge of indecent assault upon a young woman in a railway carriage . He offered no defence , and was sentenced to a year ’ s imprisonment and a fine . He was then dismissed from the service . Two years later , having meanwhile left England , he entered the service of the Ottoman Army in the war with Russia . At first in a high position in the gendarmerie , he was soon transferred to Mehmed Ali Pasha ’ s staff , and thence took over the command of a division of infantry . With this division Baker sustained the rearguard action of Tashkessen against the troops of Gourko . Promoted Ferik ( lieutenant - general ) for this feat , he continued to command Suleiman ’ s rearguard . After the peace he was employed in an administrative post in Armenia , where he remained until 1882 . In this year he was offered the command of the newly formed Egyptian army , which he accepted . On his arrival at Cairo , however , the offer was withdrawn and he only obtained the command of the Egyptian police . In this post he devoted by far the greater amount of his energy to the training of the gendarmerie , which he realized would be the reserve of the purely military forces . When the war in Sudan broke out , Baker , hastening with 3500 men to relieve Tokar , encountered the enemy under Osman Digna at El Teb . His men became panic - stricken at the first rush and were slaughtered . Baker himself with a few of his officers succeeded by hard fighting in cutting a way out , but his force was annihilated . British troops soon afterwards arrived at Suakin , and Sir Gerald Graham took the offensive . Baker Pasha accompanied the British force , and guided it in its march to the scene of his defeat , and at the desperately fought second battle of El Teb he was wounded ( See : Battles of El Teb ) . He remained in command of the Egyptian police until his death in 1887 . Amongst his works may be mentioned " Our National Defences " ( 1860 ) , " War in Bulgaria , a Narrative of Personal Experience " ( London , 1879 ) , " Clouds in the East " ( London , 1876 ) . Cultural references . The crime that led to Baker ' s conviction and military discharge may have inspired the 1894 pornographic novel " Raped on the Railway : a True Story of a Lady who was first ravished and then flagellated on the Scotch Express " . Elements of the same incident are suggested by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in his Sherlock Holmes short story " The Adventure of the Bruce - Partington Plans " .