General Sir David Baird, 1st Baronet, of Newbyth, GCB (6 December 1757 – 18 August 1829) was a British Army officer.

He was born at Newbyth House in Haddingtonshire, Scotland, the son of an Edinburgh merchant family,[1] and entered the British Army in 1772.

Immediately on his arrival, Baird was attached to the force commanded by Sir Hector Munro, which was sent forward to assist the detachment of Colonel Baillie, threatened by Hyder Ali.

Baird's mother, on hearing that her son and other prisoners were in fetters, is said to have remarked, "God help the chiel chained to our Davie."

[2] Disappointed that the command of the large contingent of the nizam was given to the then Colonel Arthur Wellesley, and that after the capture of the fortress the same officer obtained the governorship, Baird felt he had been treated with injustice and disrespect.

General Baird commanded an Anglo-Indian expeditionary that had been raised in Bombay early 1801[3] to co-operate with Sir Ralph Abercromby in the expulsion of the French from Egypt.

Commodore Sir Home Popham persuaded Sir David to lend him troops for an expedition against Buenos Aires; the successive failures of operations against this place involved the recall of Baird early in 1807, though on his return home he was quickly re-employed as a divisional general in the Copenhagen expedition of 1807.

It was Baird's misfortune that he was junior by a few days both to Moore and to Lord Cavan, under whom he had served at Alexandria, and thus never had an opportunity of a chief command in the field.

He died on 18 August 1829 at age 71, without issue, and was succeeded by his nephew, David, the son of Robert Baird and Hersey Christina Maria Gavin.

[7][8] On the south side of the monument is a plaque commemorating the march of the Anglo-Indian army across the Great desert from Kosseir to Alexandria 1801.

[9] Baird appears as a character in the Richard Sharpe series of novels, focusing on his role in the 1799 Mysore campaign, and the 1807 expedition to Copenhagen.