Baird, John |
| REVOLUTIONARY, WEAVER (SCOTLAND) |
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BORN 1 Sep 1790, Stirling - DIED 8 Sep 1820, Stirling: outside Stirling Tolbooth CAUSE OF DEATH executed by beheading GRAVE LOCATION Glasgow: Sighthill Cemetery, Springburn Road |
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John Baird grew up in Condorrat in North Lanarkshire. He served in the British army and saw action in Argentina and Spain. After his military career he worked as a weaver. In 1820 an insurrection took place in Scotland that is known as the Radical War. A national strike was called for and on 3 March 1820 a small group marched towards the Carron Company ironworks in an attempt to seize weapons. Baird was one of their commanders. The group was stopped at Bonnymuir near Falkirk by government troops. Baird was arrested and he was executed together with Andrew Hardie at Stirling on 8 September 1820. Baird and Hardie were buried in pauper’s graves in the graveyard of Stirling’s Church of the Holy Rude. After decades their bodies were exhumed and re-interred at Sighthill Cemetery in Glasgow. Their monument also mentions the radical weaver James Wilson of Strathaven who was executed on Glasgow Green on 30 August 1820. |
| Images |
 The memorial to Andrew Hardie and John Baird at Sighthill Cemetery in Glasgow. Their bodies were re-interred here long after their deaths. Picture by Androom (02 Jul 2023) |
