Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Baird, William
BAIRD, WILLIAM, M.D. (1803–1872), physician, was born at Eccles, and educated at the High School, Edinburgh. He studied medicine at Edinburgh, Dublin, and Paris, and entered the service of the East India Company as surgeon. He was a zoologist of considerable ability, and communicated several papers to the Zoological and Linnean Societies. In 1829 he helped to establish the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, which served to extend the pursuit of natural science. In 1860 his important work on the 'Natural History of British Entomostraca' was published by the Ray Society, and in 1858 he published a 'Cyclopædia of the Natural Sciences.' For some time he practised in London, but eventually accepted an appointment in the zoological department of the British Museum, which he held from 1841 to the time of his death on 27 Jan. 1872.
[Obituary Notice in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, vol. xx.]