Health
When he had arrived back in Britain at the end of the war, Baker's doctor had given him a check-up and told him to take six months' rest, the first half in bed, as his heart was in a poor state. The military authorities also recommended two small operations. Baker disregarded their advice and went straight into business.
Baker suffered a nervous breakdown in 1954, which he ascribed to his excessive workload as both a Member of Parliament and a businessman single-handedly running many companies (which were in financial difficulties). He claimed to have had multiple day-time blackouts and to have attempted suicide twice before he became a voluntary patient in a nursing home. In May 1954 he announced that he would not seek re-election due to ill-health. While in the nursing home he agreed to revise his war memoirs "Confession of Faith" and add his post-war life story, which he intended to be published under the title "Testament of Faith".
Read more about this topic: Peter Baker (British Politician)
Famous quotes containing the word health:
“I am astonished at the singular pertinacity and endurance of our lives. The miracle is, that what is is, when it is so difficult, if not impossible, for anything else to be; that we walk on in our particular paths so far, before we fall on death and fate, merely because we must walk in some path; that every man can get a living, and so few can do anything more. So much only can I accomplish ere health and strength are gone, and yet this suffices.”
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“Mens sana in men’s sauna, in the flush
Of health and toilets, private and corporal glee,”
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