The story behind 19th century Stichill's "Mr Abington"
George Alexander Baird was the millionaire laird who was equally at home in high and low society.
Baird, born at Barry's British Hotel in Edinburgh in 1861, was the only son of George Baird, one of the eight sons of Alexander Baird, the founder of the Gartsherrie family of ironmasters.
George senior had inherited the large Stichill estate in 1860 on the death of his younger brother David, who bought the property in 1853 for £150,000 (around £25 million today). George already owned the Strichen estate in Aberdeenshire, and would soon add others in Roxburghshire, Berwick and Dumfriesshire.
Between 1863 and 1866 he demolished the existing Stichill House and replaced it with a palatial three-storey French Renaissance-style residence. With commanding views over the Tweed and the Cheviots, it contained 60 rooms, had an entrance tower 100 feet high, and cost £34,000 (over £5 million today).
Baird did not long enjoy his new estate, however. In 1870 he was found dead in his bed at Strichen, where he had gone shooting. He left a fortune worth over £900,000 (about £137 million today), including extensive landed properties and large investments in America, which was left to his nine-year-old son George on attaining his 25th birthday.
Young Baird spent most of his childhood with his mother at Stichill, where he developed a passion for horses. After an interrupted education at Eton and six terms at Cambridge he took to the Turf, and began riding races while still in his teens.
Using the name Mr. Abington he became a well-known figure on the racing scene and would travel hundreds of miles and spend thousands of pounds to ride a winner. An excellent horseman, he had twenty-three wins from thirty mounts in 1890, and the following year headed the list of gentleman riders.
He was also a successful thoroughbred owner whose Busybody won the One Thousand Guineas and the Oaks, and Merry Hampton the Derby in 1885. He is said to have gambled heavily and sometimes recklessly; his winnings during the years 1888-1892 totalled £40,116 (over £6 million).
Around 1886, when he took control of his fortune, he began to indulge an enthusiasm for the ring. He was an early promoter of prize-fighting and acquired notoriety for fraternising and carousing in London’s hot-spots with disreputable elements in the boxing community.
He had an affair with society beauty (and former mistress of the future Edward VII) Lily Langtree, who described him as "an eccentric young bachelor with vast estates in Scotland, a large racing stud, a racing stable, and more money than he knew what to do with”, and on whom he lavished gifts including a yacht, White Lady.
By this time his property holdings had expanded. In 1876 he had inherited the Auchmedden estate in Aberdeenshire on the death of his uncle James Baird, and later purchased the massive Kilmuir estate on Skye and Moulton Paddocks at Newmarket.
His dissolute and hedonistic life ended as it had begun – in a hotel. In 1893 he went to America for the world championship fight of his friend Jim Hall against Bob Fitzsimmons. He caught a bad cold on the outward voyage, which he compounded by acting as one of Hall’s seconds, wearing only a light undershirt over his chest.
Afterwards the party went on a bender, during which Baird collapsed. He later died from pneumonia in the St. Charles Hotel, New Orleans. He was only 31. His body was returned for interment at Stichill.Despite a reckless and extravagant lifestyle Baird left £846,000 (£136 million), in addition to considerable real estate.
For more on Stichill House read Daniel Sweeney's Farewell Grandeur – Lost Mansions and Houses of Southern Scotland (2024), available from local bookstores, Amazon and online at mansionhousechronicler.bigcartel.com.