SMITH, RICHARD BAIRD (1818-1861)

This article appears in Volume V25, Page 268 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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SMITH, RICHARD BAIRD (1818-1861) , British engineer officer, son of a surgeon in the royal navy, was born on the 31st of December 1818. He was educated at Lasswade and Addiscombe, and joined the

Madras

MADRAS

Engineers in 1838. Being transferred to the Bengal Engineers, he served through the second
Sikh .war, and was present at the battles of llatiiwal, Aliwal and Sobraon. He was then for some years employed on canal

work

WORK

, and when the Mutiny broke out was in charge of Roorkee. He promptly concentrated the Europeans in the workshops, and though the native sappers deserted, his forethought pre-vented any loss of life. When Delhi was invested he was appointed

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

engineer in charge of the siege works. He reached Delhi on the end of July, and immediately advised General Barnard to assault the city. Barnard died while the advice was still under consideration, and his successor, General Reed, could not be induced to follow it; and when Reed in turn was succeeded by Archdale Wilson, the besiegers were so weakened by losses that the moment for a successful attack had passed. Baird

Smith

, however, prevented Wilson from relaxing his hold on Delhi until the arrival of John Nicholson with reinforcements from the Punjab, and of the siege

train

TRAIN (M. Eng. trayn or trayne, derived through Fr. from Late Lat. trahinare, to drag, draw, Lat. trahere, cf. trail, trace, ultimately from the same source)

from Phillour. Nicholson then joined Baird

Smith

in compelling Wilson to make the assault, which proved successful, on the 14th of September. Baird Smith was ably assisted by Captain Alexander Taylor, but Nicholson was unjust to Baird Smith in assigning to Taylor the

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

credit for the siege operations. After the capture of Delhi he returned to Roorkee and to civil employment, and for a time the value of his military services was insufficiently recognized. After the Mutiny he was made A.D.C. to Queen Victoria, became secretary to the government of India in the public works department, and gained well-deserved credit in the

famine

FAMINE (Lat. fames, hunger)

of 1861. But the onerous character of this

work

WORK

, following a wound and illness at Delhi, broke down his constitution, and he died at sea on the 13th of December 1861. He
married a daughter of De Quincey, who long survived him. See Colonel H. M. Vibart, Richard Baird Smith (1897).

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