WHEN Chris Baker was nobbut a lad, his mother told him that, should he ever take up any hobby or join any organisation, he should "see it through."

More than 50 years later, Chris is still "seeing it through". In a record which, even in the hard-working Dales, must be unequalled, he has given more than half a century of effort, a lot of sweat and on occasions a little blood to not one but three organisations:

The Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Association (UWFRA), Wharfedale Rugby Union Football Club, and the choir at the 900-year-old St Michael and All Angels' Church at Linton.

"At 70, I'm not doing quite as much as I did - but I don't suppose I'll ever give up completely," he told me in a well-equipped office in "The Hut" - as the fell rescue organisation's plush headquarters on Hebden Road, Grassington, are known.

Chris could have spent his life as a townie, for he was born in Bingley and went to Bradford Grammar School, but for the fact that his father, Anglican priest the Rev John Baker, was offered a living as the Rector of Linton in 1949.

"I was just about to start a career as wool buyer so it was decided that I should spend the week working in Bradford and the weekends at Linton," he explains. "That was the best of both worlds for a young man. Slowly but surely, however, Wharfedale took over. I had a career which, in the early days at least, took me all round the world, buying wool in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

"But Upper Wharfedale absorbed me very early on - and that was the one of the luckiest things in my life."

It is difficult to recall, now, that back in the late1940s, Wharfedale was a small, insignificant rugby club.

With the arrival of Chris and his brother Richard, who had both played the game at Bradford Grammar School, they were eagerly snapped up - and so began an association that was to last into seven decades and is still active.

Chris played lock at every level - from first team to fifth - and, having turned out first in 1949, played his last game in 1991. "They say that I played over six decades which, although statistically correct, is stretching the facts," he grins.

From the mid-50s onwards, Wharfedale grew from a village backwater to a power on the national rugby scene. Chris more than did his bit in that remarkable story, both on the field and off - he is still on the committee after 51 years and was chairman for19 of them.

But even with a career and rugby, Chris found time for other things and, just before his arrival in the area, the Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Association had been formed.

It was the brainwave of the then Grassington station master Len Huff (back in the days before Lord Beeching decimated the British rail network) who was a keen climber and potholer.

Its first headquarters really were a hut, and the association went into business in 1948, turning out its volunteers to rescue trapped potholers, injured climbers or lost amateur walkers.

The volunteers provided their own kit and raised cash for specialist rescue equipment by various charity bashes, later to include the Broughton Game Show.

"I liked walking and a bit of potholing but, with all my rugby training, I did not have a lot of time to become an expert," says Chris. "But I was a fit young fella and Len Huff asked me to sign on. It seemed a bit of fun - and a useful way of putting something back into the community - so I said Yes. That was to last half a century too."

In fact, Chris has just stepped down as association chairman, having served for 24 years in the post, a term which followed another 24 years as secretary.

In that time, the growth of UWFRA has been phenomenal. It got a new "hut" in 1962 - the by-then disused Grassington/Threshfield railway signal box - then another one in the local quarry. In 1976 it moved into its present purpose-built detached home on Hebden Road, Grassington.

This posh new place is still called The Hut but it would be unrecognisable to early members of the association, with its two fully equipped Land Rovers (cost: £25,000 apiece); hi-tech radio communications room (run by Len Huff's son); a battery room for recharging helmet lamps; training rooms and even a towable catering truck.

Chris has still found the time to sing in the choirs at St Michael's as, his own description, a "bog-standard bass."

He laughs again: "There were several occasions in the early days when the church door would open during a service and me and a couple of mates would be called out for a rescue. With a bit of luck, they would come before the sermon..."

The fact that his father was to give the sermon was cause for a family joke. Mrs Baker, however, was quite serious when she told her young son to "see it through".

He's been doing so ever since, is still on the rugby club committee, and is still a trustee of UWFRA. He deserves a rest. But I doubt he will take one.

* The Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Association needs £15,000 a year just to pay its regular bills, never mind buy new equipment. Its volunteers give their time - and sometimes risk their lives - for free. All donations are welcome to UWFRA, The Hut, Hebden Road, Grassington BD23 5LB.