Name Andrew Baird | ||
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Andrew wilson baird top 6 facts
Andrew Wilson Baird CSI (1842–1908) was a Scottish colonel of the Royal Engineers. He is best remembered for his work in tidal studies of the coast of India.
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Life
Born in Aberdeen, he was educated at Marischal College, Aberdeen, before entering the Military College of the East India Company at Addiscombe in June 1860. Joining the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich in January 1861, he was made a lieutenant in the Royal Engineers the following year, and sailed for India on 1 March 1864. In India he was appointed special assistant engineer of the Bombay harbour defence works, and was responsible for ordering the buildings of the batteries at Oyster Rock and Middle Ground. After serving as assistant field engineer in the Abyssinian expedition of 1868 under Sir Robert Napier, in December 1869 Baird was assistant superintendent of the trigonometrical survey of India, and conducted extensive tidal observations at the Gulf of Cutch. He briefly returned to England in 1870, after being affected by the heat, but returned and continued his work in tidal observations. He was promoted to captain on 4 April 1874 and a major on 18 December 1881.
Between July 1885 and August 1889 he headed the mints at Calcutta and Bombay, until he was appointed the permanent mint master at Calcutta on 12 August. He was appointed a colonel on 9 April 1896, and retired from the mint the following year, making his home at Palmers Cross, near Elgin, Moray.
In 1885 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. and appointed CSI in the 1897 Diamond Jubilee Honours.