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Edward Baird (rugby league)

Australia international rugby league footballer (1884-1917)

Summary

Australia international rugby league footballer (1884-1917)

Field	Value
name	Edward Baird
fullname	Edward Henry Baird
image	EdwardBairdstanding.jpg
image_upright	0.9
caption	Military photograph of Baird.
birth_date	24 May 1884
birth_place	Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
death_date
death_place	Passchendaele salient, Belgium
first	RU
ru_club1	North Brisbane
position
club1	North Brisbane
teamA	Queensland
yearAstart	1908
appearancesA	8
teamB	Australia
yearBstart	1908
appearancesB	1
triesB	0
goalsB	0
fieldgoalsB	0
pointsB	0
retired	yes
source	Whiticker
module	{{infobox military person
embed	yes
allegiance	Australia
branch
service_years	1916-1917
unit	47th Battalion (Australia)
battles

World War I
- First Battle of Passchendaele

Edward Baird (1884–1917) was a pioneer Australian rugby league footballer, one of his country's first selected national representatives and an Australian Imperial Forces (AIF) soldier who fell in World War I at the Battle of Passchendale.

Early life and football career

Baird was born in Sydney in 1884 and schooled at McDonaldtown School in the inner Sydney suburbs. By 1908 when he was playing rugby league in the code's inaugural competition year, he was located in Brisbane. He was selected in the first ever Queensland Maroons state representative side to play the new "Northern Union" style of rugby, taking on Albert Baskerville's New Zealand All Golds on their inaugural tour. Baird played as a reserve as the Queenslanders lost the historic match 34–12. He went on to make another appearance against New Zealand and two against New South Wales.

When the New Zealand team came back on the return leg of their tour, they played three Test matches against the first Australian representative sides ever selected. The first Test was played in Sydney on 9 May 1908 with the Kiwis prevailing. On 30 May the 2nd Test was played in Brisbane. The side had four new players who had not played in the Sydney test, two of them Queenslanders in George Watson and Baird. Baird made his sole national representative appearance at full-back, becoming Kangaroo No. 15. Charlie Hedley was selected at fullback for the 1st and 3rd Tests of the series.

Baird continued to play at fullback for Queensland against a touring New Zealand Māori rugby league team in 1908.

War service

He enlisted with the AIF as a private in the 47th Battalion (Australia) and embarked from Brisbane in May 1916 on HMAT A46 Clan Macgillivray. He was killed on the first day of the First Battle of Passchendaele in Belgium on 12 October 1917. He was one of 3,199 Australian lives lost in the battle.

References

Other sources

Whiticker, Alan & Hudson, Glen (2006) The Encyclopedia of Rugby League Players, Gavin Allen Publishing, Sydney
Ed Baird at the AIF Project

References

[http://www.rugbyleagueproject.org/players/j-baird--qld-/summary.html Rugby League Project]
Higginson, Mike. "The Beginnings...". [[Queensland Rugby League]].
"All Blacks Tour 1907/1908". Shawn Dollin, Andrew Ferguson and Bill Bates.
qrl.com.au. "Queensland Representative Players". [[Queensland Rugby League]].
"Player Register". [[Australian Rugby League]].
John Coffey & Bernie Wood. (2008). "100 Years: Maori Rugby League, 1908–2008". Huia Publishers.
Middleton, David. (24 April 2010). "Footy stars taken on battlefield". [[The Daily Telegraph (Sydney).
"Baird Edward Henry : SERN 1882".

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1885-births 1917-deaths australia-national-rugby-league-team-players australian-military-personnel-killed-in-world-war-i australian-rugby-league-players australian-rugby-union-players queensland-rugby-league-team-players rugby-league-fullbacks rugby-league-players-from-sydney rugby-union-players-from-sydney sportsmen-from-new-south-wales 20th-century-australian-sportsmen

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