George Husband Baird

George Husband Baird FRSE FSA (Scot) MWS (13 July 1761 – 14 January 1840) was a Scottish minister, educational reformer, linguist and the Principal of the University of Edinburgh from 1793 to 1840. In 1800 he served as Moderator of the Church of Scotland General Assembly.

Baird was born in 1761 in the parish of Bo'ness in West Lothian. His father, James Baird, a landowner in Stirlingshire, at that time rented this farm from the Duke of Hamilton. Baird attended the parish school in Bo'ness, before being sent to the grammar school at Linlithgow. At age 12, Baird entered Edinburgh University as a student in humanities (Latin and Greek). There he made some independent linguistic researches, with James Finlayson and Josiah Walker.

Baird was ordained minister of Dunkeld in 1787, and was appointed minister of Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh in 1792. In the same year he became Joint Professor of Oriental Languages in Edinburgh University, before being appointed Principal of Edinburgh University one year later at the early age of thirty-three. He served in this role for an abnormally long period, 1793 until 1840.

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