Dugald Baird graduated from Glasgow in 1922. As a student and young doctor in Glasgow he saw the effects of poverty on mothers and babies and this influenced his lifelong interest in social and economic factors in health and disease.
In 1937 he was appointed Regius Professor of Midwifery in Aberdeen. In the three decades he held this post he made major contributions in the fields of clinical practice, service provision and health policy in reproductive health, perinatal and maternal mortality, social obstetrics, sterilisation, induced abortion and cervical screening. He and his wife established the first free family planning clinic in Aberdeen. In 1951 he started the Aberdeen Maternity and Neonatal Databank, which continues today linking all obstetric and fertility related events in women from a defined population.
He was knighted in 1959 and when he retired in 1965 he and his wife were awarded the Freedom of the City of Aberdeen for their contribution to medical science and health in the city and beyond. He is commemorated by a plaque at 38 Albyn Place.
