John Logie Baird

H.G.Wells and J.L.Baird

Notes from Malcolm Baird, January 2021

THIS year the Royal Mint is issuing coins to mark the 75th anniversaries of the deaths of two highly creative British figures, one in literature and the other in science and technology.

Among John Logie Baird’s old papers are some pages from a magazine called “Scotland” in its 1936 summer edition. He was asked for recollections of his earlier life and he recalled school and social life in Helensburgh, with a few comments on politics as the world drifted towards World War Two.

A research note by Malcolm Baird, July 8 2019, amended March 6 2021

I have been re-examining  the colourful story of John Logie Baird’s jam factory in Trinidad in 1919-1920. It has appeared in his own memoirs [1] and in later biographies [2,3].

THIS Memorial Address was delivered to the London Memorial Service for John Logie Baird by The Rev. Robert F.V.Scott, D.D., Minister of St. Columba’s Church of Scotland, Pont Street, London.

CELEBRATIONS marking the 90th anniversary in October 2015 of Helensburgh inventor John Logie Baird successfully transmitting the first ever grey-scale television image would have delighted a famous old friend.

"MY earliest memory of him dates back to 1938 in the garden at our house in Sydenham, South-East London.

"He was muffled in an overcoat and scarf— he always felt the cold."

A PROMINENT Helensburgh man wrote his first and only book at the age of 84.

And finding out about it came as a real surprise to his grandson, Professor Malcolm Baird, son of TV inventor John Logie Baird.

A TEENAGE neighbour of Helensburgh-born TV inventor John Logie Baird sent his recollections of an association with the inventor to the Helensburgh and Gareloch Times in the 1960s.

TV INVENTOR John Logie Baird is by far the best known member of his Helensburgh family, but his sister Annie also had a distinguished career in nursing.

TV INVENTOR John Logie Baird is arguably Helensburgh’s most famous son, but what about his father?

The Rev John Baird was a formidable figure. Many may have seen him in a well known and much published photo outside his West Argyle Street home, with his sister Annie and son John.

The November 2013 closure of the Logie Baird pub on James Street, Helensburgh, prompted Malcolm Baird to reflect on his father's connections with alcoholic drink.

JOHN LOGIE BAIRD was the son of a Scottish minister and he was raised in the late Victorian era.

His sister Annie, who lived until 1971, told me that in those days there was no alcohol in the family home except for a small unopened bottle of brandy that was kept for medical emergencies.

TV INVENTOR John Logie Baird is always thought of as a brilliant scientist . . . but he had another talent, writing.

His forays into fiction, as an enthusiastic contributor to the Royal Technical College Magazine, won him admirers amongst his student peers.