Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/184

 thence to Goode's, Ludgate Hill, and so to Simpson's, in the Strand, where the professionals at first gave him the odds of queen. Buckle, the historian, who was considered the first amateur in England and who did not mind hard work, soon found Bird too much for him at the odds of pawn and move. In 1851 in the great international tournament he played eighteen games with the great Anderssen with an even result, and later played Boden, Harrwitz, Lowenthal, Falkbeer, Wisker, Mason and others. With the dignified [q. v.] he only played two games on even terms and won both, but this at a date when Staunton's best days were over. In 1866 he played a match of twenty games against Steinitz and was only beaten by seven to six (seven being drawn). He was a friend of Steinitz's rival, [q. v.], who lived near him in Heygate Street, Waiworth Road. In 1879 he won first prize in the Lowenthal tourney against Blackburne, Mason, and McDonnell, and in the same year took the first prize at Gouda, winning nine and a half out of ten games and first prize in the B.C. A. tournament (1889), not losing a single game. At Venice in 1873, Paris in 1878, Nuremberg in 1883, Hereford in 1885, and Manchester 1890 he was among the prizewinners. His last appearance as a public player was at the London tournament in 1899, where, however, he took a low place.

Bird had long since retired from professional work and his resources failed. Members of the St. George's Chess Club purchased an annuity for him, which enabled him to spend his last days in comfort. He died at Tooting on 11 April 1908. He married young and was left a widower in 1869.

Well known for his rapidity (R. J. Buckley says he once played three games in ten minutes at Simpson's, scoring one and a half), dash, and eccentric openings (KBP2 is often called Bird's opening), Bird was the most popular referee of his time and answered more questions about chess than any man living. In chivalry and enthusiasm for chess as a pastime, in pluck, and in readiness to play at a moment's notice for stakes or no stakes, Bird had no equal. After Staunton, Blackburne, and Burn he probably ranks next among English masters of the last sixty years. Unfortunately his patience and judgment were very inferior to his power of combination. As a problem composer he was not great. His books, discursive compilations of mediocre value, include: These last two were dedicated to his favourite opponent and patron, W. J. Evelyn of Wotton. Among his opponents at the chess clubs and divans were Buckle, Bradlaugh, Isaac Butt, Lord Randolph Churchill, Ruskin, and Prince Leopold. For a time he was chess correspondent of 'The Times.'
 * 1) 'Chess Masterpieces,' 1875.
 * 2) 'Chess Openings,' 1878 (reviewed by Steinitz in 'Field,' Dec. 1879).
 * 3) 'Chess Practice,' 1882.
 * 4) 'Modern Chess,' 1887 and 1889.
 * 5) 'Chess History and Reminiscences,' 1893.
 * 6) 'Chess Novelties,' 1895.



BIRD, ISABELLA LUCY (1831–1904), traveller. [See .]

BIRDWOOD, HERBERT MILLS (1837–1907), Anglo-Indian judge, born at Belgaum, Western India, on 29 May 1837, was third son of fourteen children of General Christopher Birdwood, deputy commissary general of the Bombay army (of an old Devonshire family), by his wife Lydia, eldest daughter of the Rev. Joseph Taylor, agent of the London Missionary Society in the southern Mahratta country. His great-grandfather, Richard Birdwood, mayor of Plymouth in 1796, and his grandfather, Peter Birdwood, were both agents at Plymouth of the East India Company. His eldest brother is Sir George Birdwood (b. 1832).

Educated successively at the Plymouth new grammar school and at Mount Radford school, Exeter, he matriculated at Edinburgh University in 1851, and distinguished himself in mathematics. In October 1854 he entered Peterhouse, Cambridge, and graduated B.A. in 1858 as twenty-third wrangler in the mathematical tripos and with a second class in the natural science tripos. At once elected to a fellowship at his college, he took eighteenth place in the Indian civil service examination. He proceeded M.A. in 1861, LL.M. in 1878, and LL.D. in 1889, when he was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn. In Oct. 1901 he was elected an honorary fellow of Peterhouse.

Arriving in Bombay on 26 Jan. 1859, he served successively in Thana, Broach, Surat and Ahmedabad as assistant collector. In 1863 he became under-secretary in the judicial, political and educational