Baird, John Logie, 1888-1946

John Logie Baird (1888-1946) was an inventor and pioneer of television who studied Engineering at the University of Glasgow in the session 1914-1915.

Born in Helensburgh on 13 August 1888, John Logie Baird was the youngest child of Rev John Baird, a Church of Scotland minister, and Jessie Morrison Inglis. Baird attended school in Helensburgh, and went on to study for a Diploma in Electrical Engineering at the Royal Technical College, previously known as the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College.

In October 1914 Baird matriculated at the University of Glasgow to take classes in Electricity (Pure and Applied), Engineering and Natural Philosophy. Although entitled to sit the examinations for a BSc degree, he chose not to do this and left the University in March 1915.

He applied for military service but was declared medically unfit and joined the Clyde Valley Electrical Power Co as an assistant mains engineer in 1916, resigning two years later to concentrate on his own business interests, inventing and marketing his own products with perhaps the most successful being the ‘ Baird undersock ’.

Baird achieved fame for his work developing television, giving the world's first demonstration of a practical system in front of members of the Royal Institution on 26 Jan 1926. In 1928 the Baird Television Development Co made the first transatlantic television transmission, and during the 1930s and 1940s succeeded in developing colour television.

He passed away on 14 June 1946 in Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex.

From the guide to the Papers of John Logie Baird, inventor, businessman and University of Glasgow alumnus, Glasgow, Scotland, 1914-1915, (Glasgow University Archive Services)