Constance Barbara Clarke

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.

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]

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]