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Cenotaph record

Claude Hern Baigent

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Portrait, Identity card photograph (B 6554) for RNZAF and WAAF personnel (all ranks), issued to P/O Claude Hern Baigent (NZ4215169), RNZAF, Rongotai, 1944. - This image may be subject to copyright

Portrait, Identity card photograph (B 6554) for RNZAF and WAAF personnel (all ranks), issued to P/O …

Identity

About

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  • Title
  • Forenames
    Claude Hern AWMM
  • Surname
    Baigent AWMM
  • Ingoa
  • Also known as
    • Claude Hereward Hern Baigent AWMM
    • Jim AWMM
  • Service number
    • 391517 AWMM
    • 4215169 AWMM
  • Gender
    Male AWMM
  • Iwi
  • Hapū
  • Waka
  • Rohe
  • Religion
    Church of England, Christian AWMM

Civilian life

About birth

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Service

Wars and conflicts

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Military decorations

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Training and Enlistment

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Embarkations

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Prisoner of war

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  • Capture details
  • Days interned
  • Liberation date
  • Liberation Repatriation
  • POW liberation details
  • POW serial number

Medical history

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  • Medical notes
    • Height, Unknown Period AWMM
      5 feet 8 3/4 inches AWMM
    • Hair colour, Unknown Period AWMM
      Medium AWMM
    • Eye colour, Unknown Period AWMM
      Blue AWMM
    • Complexion, Unknown Period AWMM
      Fair AWMM
    • Died of Disease, Cause of Death AWMM
      Died Coronary Occlusion AWMM

Last known rank

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Biographical information

Biographical information

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  • Son of Amelia Bertha Baigent and Leon Hern Baigent.

    Returned to Gisborne in 1944, where he worked as an accountant and farmer while also running an agricultural contracting business.

    Later moved to New Plymouth, where he worked as an accountant with Ivon Watkins.

    Obtained a commercial pilot's licence in the 1950s and became Chief Flying Instructor at the New Plymouth Aero Club. Baigent also operated his own aerial topdressing and spraying company, McReady/Baigent Aviation.

    Baigent later moved into dairy farming.

    In 1963 he moved to Auckland and started a photographic studio on the North Shore. Baigent died suddenly later that same year.

    The Auckland Museum's manuscripts collection holds copies of Baigent's RNZAF identity card, Air Observers School graduation dinner menu, and several photographs (MS 2006/28).

    Listed by BDM as Claude Hereward Hern Baigent AWMM
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Death

About death

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  • Death
    29 August 1963 AWMM
    Age 51 AWMM
    Belmont, Auckland AWMM
  • Date of death
  • Age at death
  • Place of death
  • Cause of death
    Died of Disease AWMM
  • Death notes
  • Cemetery
    Birkenhead-Glenfield Cemetery, corner Eskdale and Glenfield Roads, Birkenhead, Auckland, New Zealand AWMM Public Lawn Row P Plot 67 AWMM
  • Cemetery name
  • Grave reference
  • Obituary
    Death notice: New Zealand Herald, September, 1963 AWMM
  • Memorial name
  • Memorial reference

Memorials

Memorial

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  • Memorial name
    Memorial paver, NZ Quadrant of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP) in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. AWMM

Roll of Honour

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Sources

Sources

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  • External links
  • References
    • Information kindly provided by family AWMM
    • Baigent, Claude Hern. Papers relating to war service, 1943-1944. Auckland War Memorial Museum Library. MS-2006/28. AWMM
    • Martyn, E. (1998-2008). For Your Tomorrow (Vols. 1-3). Christchurch, N.Z.: Volplane Press. AWMM
    • The New Zealand Herald AWMM
      Death notice: September, 1963 AWMM
    • This record is a work in progress and was partially compiled from the “Database of New Zealand Airmen who took part in Advanced Air Training in Canada during WW2”. Researched by Ivan and Lorna Lindsey of Tauranga. N.Z. 2003 – 2012. Reproduced with permission. AWMM
    • Baigent, Claude Hern. Papers relating to war service, 1943-1944. Auckland War Memorial Museum Library. MS-2006/28. AWMM

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