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Baird as early in the action his left arm was broken by a cannon-ball. He was at once carried to a transport, where his arm was amputated, and where he heard the news of Moore's death and of the safe embarkation of the troops, and received Hope's famous report, which he at once sent home by his aide-de-camp. Captain Gordon. On reaching England he was made a K.B., and in the following year a baronet.

Corunna was the last of Sir David Baird's battles, and he never again commanded an army in the field. Whether it was want of political influence or the presence of some prejudice against him cannot be certainly said; but it is certain that even his earnest application for the government of the Cape in 1813 was refused, and he could not serve in the Peninsula under Lord Wellington, his junior. In spite of much unmerited neglect his latter years were very happy; he married a great heiress. Miss Campbell-Preston, and in 1814 became full general. At last the veteran could no longer be passed over, and in 1819 he was made governor of Kinsale. In 1820 he became commander of the forces in Ireland in succession to Sir G. Beckwith, and a privy councillor; but had to resign in 1822, when the office was reduced to a lieutenant-general's command. In 1829 he was made governor of Fort George; on 29 Aug. in that year he died at the age of 72. His widow erected an obelisk to him at Crieff, and employed Theodore Hook to write his life, which was published in 1832.

If Baird was not a very great general, he was certainly a gallant soldier, and the prisoner of Hyder Ali, the stormer of Seringapatam, and the general of the march across the desert, will deservedly remain a popular hero. There was a chivalrous gallantry in his nature which made the old pun, 'Not Baird, but Bayard,' particularly applicable to him.

[The principal authority for Baird's life is his Life by Theodore Hook, 2 vols. 1832; and for his differences with Harris should be consulted Lushington's Life of Lord Harris, 1840. For the Egyptian campaign should be consulted Sir Robert Wilson's Campaign in Egypt, and Mémoires relatifs à l'expédition anglaise partie du Bengale en 1800 pour aller combattre l'armée de l'Orient, par M. le comte de Noë, Paris, 1826. For his campaign in the Peninsula see Napier's Peninsular War, book iii.; Notes on the Campaign of 1808-9 in the North of Spain, in reference to some passages in Lient.-Colonel Napier's History of the War in the Peninsula, and in Sir W. Scott's Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, by Lieut.-Colonel T. S. Sorell, military secretary and aide-de-camp to Sir David Baird during the campaign, 1829, with Napier's reply, published in his Answer to various Criticisms, 1832. and republished at the end of the last volume of his history.]  BAIRD, GEORGE HUSBAND, D.D. (1761–1840), principal of the university of Edinburgh, was a native of the parish of Borrowstounness (or Bo'ness) on the Forth, Linlithgowshire; his father, a landed gentleman of Stirlingshire, rented a farm from the Duke of Hamilton. Born in 1761, Baird received his primary education in the parish school of Bo'ness, and, on the family's removal to a newly purchased property, named Manuel, in West Lothian, at the parish school of Linlithgow. He was a plodding, persevering, and well-mannered, rather than a brilliant schoolboy. In 1773, in his thirteenth year, he was entered as a student in humanity (Latin) and Greek at Edinburgh. He speedily came under the favourable notice of Principal Robertson, the historian, and Professor Dalzel, and others, because of his devotion to his class-work and marked progress. Not content with the tasks of the university classes, he carried on simultaneously philological and philosophical researches. He was associated therein with Finlayson — afterwards a professor at Edinburgh — and Josiah Walker. The ripened fruit of these extra-collegiate studies was shown in his exceptionally varied and accurate knowledge of nearly all the living languages of Europe.

In 1784 he was recommended by Professor Dalzel as tutor in the family of Colonel Blair, of Blair. In 1786 he received license as a preacher of the gospel from the presbytery of Linlithgow of the kirk of Scotland. In 1787 he was presented to the parish of Dunkeld by the Duke of Athole, through influence brought to bear by his friend Finlayson. Before leaving for his parish he had met with Robert Burns, then the observed of all observers. In his old age he delighted to tell of his having repeatedly met with the 'Ayrshire ploughman.' He religiously preserved his copy of the poet's first volume, published at Kilmarnock in 1786 — his name being among the subscribers. Baird was evangelical rather than of the 'moderates,' but family ties threw him a good deal into the cultivated circle of the Robertsons and Blairs and their school. Whilst parish clergyman at Dunkeld he was resident in the duke's family, and superintended the education of his grace's three sons. The late Lord Glenlyon was wont to speak gratefully of his tutor's earnestness and accuracy in instruction. In 1789-90 he was presented to the large and important parish church of Edinburgh, known as 'Lady Yester's,' but the ducal house of Athole persuaded him to decline the call. In 1792 he accepted another Edinburgh presentation, viz. to New Greyfriars church. Contemporaneously he