Padre Percy BakerPrint Page

The monument commemorates Padre Percy Baker who was RSSAILA state councillor 1941 - 1943 and Roseville Subbranch secretary 1933 - 1944 . Originally erected in 1945 at Hill Street Roseville it was relocated to its present position in in 1965.

The monument is a bronze wreath of laurel leaves mounted on a sloping cut away face of granite block supportred by a polished granite plinth, incised letters detail in gold on three of the vertical faces of the plinth. 

At Roseville there is a bank of massed blossoms that is making as fine a display of colour as any that I have seen in a public place for years. It is against the railway facing Hill Street, more than 100 yards of it, with dazzling petunia, phlox, aster, salvia, and zinnia blossoms in rock beds. Roseville people are proud of this floral gateway and very conscious of the splendid work done by Kuring-gai Council in maintaining it. There is a story behind the display. These gardens were made possible by efforts of the local Returned Servicemen's League and the making of them goes back to depression days. Then the R.S.L. used its funds in a dual-purpose effort of beautifying its suburb and helping luckless members. The whole series of rock-gardens were dedicated as a memorial to Padre Baker, whose name and work are still bywords to R.S.L. men wherever they gather. But a small shrine nearby to his memory seems to have been neglected. It is beautification like this that lifts a suburb beyond the normal and stimulates residents to do their share. In that regard alone the R.S.L. and Kuring-gai Council have done a fine piece of work.
Sydney Morning Herald (NSW), 19 January 1951.

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