Height overall: 37cm (15.5in)
Silver. Cast from a model by George Halliday based upon Sir Thomas Lawrence’s full length portrait of Francis, Lord Seaforth. Raised on a concave shaped base applied silver plaque inscribed, 'Presented to / Lieutenant. G.H.W Baird / by the Officers of the Seaforth Highlanders / on his marriage / 22nd January 1931’. Height of silver figure: 26.5cm (10.4in). Maker’s mark of Elkington & Co. Ltd. Hallmarked 1930.
Francis Humberston Mackenzie, 1st Baron Seaforth (1754-1815), Chief of the Mackenzie Clan was known as MacCoinnich Bodhar (‘Deaf Mackenzie’ in Gaelic). As a young midshipman in the Royal Navy, he lost his hearing to scarlet fever and was speech impaired, forcing him to quit the Service; but, having learnt to ‘talk with his fingers’, he went on to pursue social, intellectual and political ambitions. When war broke out with Revolutionary France in 1793 he was empowered as Lieutenant-Colonel-Commandant and raised a Highland Battalion to be called the 78th Highland Regiment, known as Seaforth’s Highlanders. In 1797 he was created Lord Seaforth and Baron Mackenzie of Kintail in the peerage of Great Britain, and later rose to the rank of Lieutenant-General in 1808.
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Major George Henry William Baird (1903-1992), a descendant of Sir David Baird of Seringagpatam fame, was educated at Eton and Sandhurst and was gazetted as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Seaforth Highlanders in 1923. He was appointed ADC to the Governor & GOC-in-C Gibraltar in 1928. Promoted to Captain in 1936 he relinquished his commission in 1939 before being recalled to active duty on the outbreak of war. He was commanding HQ Company, 4th Seaforths when taken prsioner at St Valery with the 51st Highland Division after the defence of the Dunkirk perimeter in 1940. He was held at Oflag IX near Kassel and was marched east in 1945 before being liberated by American troops.