Constance Barbara Clarke
Constance Barbara Clarke, Lady Baird | |
|---|---|
| Born | Constance Barbara Clarke 1866 Chaffcombe, Somerset, England |
| Died | November 1931 (aged 64–65) Wiarton, Ontario, Canada |
| Occupations | Nurse and yachtswoman |
| Spouse | |
| Parents |
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Constance Barbara Clarke, Lady Baird (1866 – November 1931), later Lady Charles Kennedy, known as Constance, Lady Baird, was a British military nurse and pioneering yachtswoman.
Early life and family
[edit | edit source]Constance Barbara Clarke was born at Avishays House, Chaffcombe, near Chard, Somerset in 1866, daughter of Edward Clarke, a solicitor and his wife Barbara. After studying in Paris, she trained as a nurse at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London.[1]
On 6 March 1905 she married the retired Rear Admiral Sir John Kennedy Erskine Baird.[2] They lived at Wootton, Isle of Wight where both were active in sailing and the Cowes Regatta.[1] Sir John was 30 years older than Constance, and died in 1908, leaving her a childless widow at the age of forty-two.
Nursing career
[edit | edit source]Having trained as a nurse prior to her marriage, Lady Baird served as President of the Cowes Branch of the British Red Cross Society. When World War I broke out, she helped organise a hospital for wounded soldiers at Northwood House.[1] She joined active service in France and Belgium, first as a trooper, then serjeant, in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY).[3]
Yachtswoman
[edit | edit source]After the war, Constance moved to Fremington, near Barnstaple, Devon, where she had inherited Fremington Manor from an aunt.[1][4]
She retained her passion for sailing and acquired one of the first 6-metre yachts, ‘’Thistle’’, built by William Fife & Sons, in 1923, competing in regattas and races.[1] In 1925 she won the King of Spain’s Cup, for which she was the only woman competitor.[5] She championed the founding of an international competition for 6-metre yachts, the British-American Cup, which ran from 1921 to 1955, and in 1924, donated the Lady Baird Trophy for 6 metre yacht races.[6]
Later life
[edit | edit source]In 1925, she married Sir Charles Kennedy, a distant cousin of her first husband, who later (after Constance’s death) became the 5th Marquess of Ailsa.[1][7]
Constance was taken ill and died while visiting a cousin, the Canadian politician Alexander McNeill, in Wiarton, Ontario, in November 1931.[8]
Honours and awards
[edit | edit source]References
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- ^ Sir John Baird at William Loney RN
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- ^ Glasgow Herald (1 March 1943) The Marquis of Ailsa
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