I first met Fred Baker when he was editing on the girls' comics. I wrote a script for that market and took it along for Fred to read.  At the time, I was a sub editor on Lion.   

Fred read the script and announced it was too much like a boys' story!  I little realised that soon after that, Fred would be going freelance and would be writing scripts for the boys' market!

One of the first scripts he wrote for Tiger was the highly successful, long-running Skid Solo, the story of a British racing driver in the world of grand prix racing. Drawn by John Vernon, it turned into a classic boys' sports story.

Tiger inherited two other classic stories:  Billy's Boots and Hot-Shot Hamish. Fred wrote all the Billy's Boots stories and wrote them magnificently. It was a very simple storyline: schoolboy Billy Dane owned an old pair of football boots that used to belong to an old-time soccer star called Dead-Shot Keen. When he wore Dead-Shot's old boots, Billy was world-class. But when the boots were damaged, stolen, lost or vanished, Billy was just terrible. His soccer skills disappeared!      

Yes - a simple storyline, but Fred kept it fresh for instalment after instalment. It was the only story ever to challenge Roy of the Rovers for Number One position in Tiger and when Roy went to his own comic, Billy's Boots became the unchallenged top story.    

In my time on Tiger, Billy was drawn by John Gillatt and the late Mike Western, two of the greats of children's publishing. Their efforts added much to the success of the story.

Hot-Shot Hamish, the story of a lovable, giant Scottish footballer was full of humour and soccer action.  Hamish Balfour was a Scottish footballer who was so strong, his shots would inevitably break the back of the net, as they thudded home.  

Fred teamed up with an artist from Argentina called Julio Schiaffino for this strip and they made one of the best ever teams in the comics. Here were two contributors, from different countries and backgrounds, who understood what the Hot-Shot Hamish story was all about.

For years, they didn't met and I was delighted when I managed to get them both to London and introduce them to each other. It was a great moment!

When I first joined Fleetway as a sub-editor, writers such as Frank Pepper and Ted Cowan were dominating the boys' comics.  By the time I became Group Editor, the domination was from Tom Tully and Fred Baker.    

Like those other writers, Fred entertained millions of children in the pages of the comics.  His work should never be forgotten!

Barrie Tomlinson