Nina Isabel Baird was born on 20 March 1882 in Torquay, Devon, the sixth of the seven children of Sir Alexander Baird of Urie, 1st Baronet, 2nd of Ury, GBE (1849-1920) and his wife the Hon. Annette Baird née Palk (1846-1884).
At the time of the 1891 census she is shown as living at Urie House, Fetteresso, Kincardineshire (now Aberdeenshire), with her widower father, two brothers, three sisters, a governess, a cook, plus ten other domestic servants.
In the 1901 census she was shown as one of three grand-daughters living in the home of the widowed Lady Haldon at 15 Lowndes Square, Knightsbridge, along with butler, a house-keeper, a cook, a lady's maid, two housemaids, a kitchen-maid, a footman and a groom.
She studied art at the Royal Academy and joined her father in Egypt in September 1915 where she organised the Red Cross Empire Nurses’ Club in Cairo. She then carried out war work in the testing of bombs manufactured in Cairo.
After the Frontier District Administrator had gathered starving Bedouin women from the Senussi Campaign at Amira these women were provided with wool to spin and make carpets. She took over the organising of this industry amongst Bedouin women, developing a shop and a school. In April 1919 she worked as a Political Officer for two months investigating the causes of unrest in Egypt.
She died, aged 37 years, of typhoid fever on 10 August 1919, in Alexandria, Egypt and when her will, dated 6 August 1913, was proved on 3 December 1919 administration was granted to an elder brother, Brigadier-General Alexander Walter Frederic Baird. Her estate was valued at £14,540-1s-2d.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
