Edward Baird (1884–1917) was a pioneer Australian

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

footballer, one of his country's first selected national representatives and an Australian Imperial Forces (AIF) soldier who fell in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

at the

Battle of Passchendale A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force c ...

Early life and football career

Baird was born in Sydney in 1884 and schooled at McDonaldtown School in the inner Sydney suburbs. By 1908 when he was playing rugby league in the code's inaugural competition year, he was located in Brisbane. He was selected in the first ever

Queensland Maroons The Queensland rugby league team represents the Australian state of Queensland in rugby league football. Nicknamed the "Maroons" after the colour of their jersey, they play three times a year against arch-rivals New South Wales rugby league tea ...

state representative side to play the new "Northern Union" style of rugby, taking on Albert Baskerville's New Zealand All Golds on their inaugural tour. Baird played as a reserve as the Queenslanders lost the historic match 34–12. He went on to make another appearance against

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

and two against

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

. When the New Zealand team came back on the return leg of their tour, they played three

Test matches Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Indoor cricket, Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (associa ...

against the first Australian representative sides ever selected. The first Test was played in Sydney on 9 May 1908 with the Kiwis prevailing. On 30 May the 2nd Test was played in Brisbane. The side had four new players who had not played in the Sydney test, two of them Queenslanders in George Watson and Baird. Baird made his sole national representative appearance at full-back, becoming Kangaroo No. 15.

Charlie Hedley Charlie Hedley (1881–1942) was a pioneer Australian rugby league footballer. He was one of his country's first national representative players appearing in the inaugural professional series against New Zealand in 1907 and making the 1908– ...

was selected at fullback for the 1st and 3rd Tests of the series. Baird continued to play at fullback for Queensland against a touring

New Zealand Māori rugby league team The New Zealand Māori rugby league team is a rugby league representative side made up of Māori people, New Zealand Māori players. With some controversy, the team participated in the 2000 Rugby League World Cup, 2000 World Cup as Aotearoa M ...

in 1908.

War service

He enlisted with the AIF as a Private in the

47th Battalion (Australia) The 47th Battalion was an infantry battalion of the Australian Army. It was originally raised in 1916 for service during the First World War. The battalion then took part in the fighting in the trenches of the Western Front in France and Belgi ...

and embarked from Brisbane in May 1916 on ''HMAT A46 Clan Macgillivray''. He was killed on the first day of the

First Battle of Passchendaele The First Battle of Passchendaele took place on 12 October 1917 during the First World War, in the Ypres Salient in Belgium on the Western Front. The attack was part of the Third Battle of Ypres and was fought west of Passchendaele village. T ...

in Belgium on 12 October 1917. He was one of 3,199 Australian lives lost in the battle.

References

Other sources

* Whiticker, Alan & Hudson, Glen (2006) ''The Encyclopedia of Rugby League Players'', Gavin Allen Publishing, Sydney
Ed Baird at the AIF Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baird, Edward 1885 births 1917 deaths Australia national rugby league team players Australian military personnel killed in World War I Australian rugby league players Australian rugby union players Queensland rugby league team players Rugby league fullbacks Rugby league players from Sydney Rugby union players from Sydney Sportsmen from New South Wales 20th-century Australian sportsmen