"No great man lives in vain. The history of the world is but the biography of great men." -Thomas Carlyle 1795-1881

In the course of researching this biography of John Logie Baird I came across a number of articles relating to the life and work of this extraordinary man. One of the things that I was surprised to discover was how the public image of Baird has altered over the years, to the point where it became popular to dismiss Baird's contributions towards the development of television as "nothing more than that of a romantic who was destined to nothing more than failure due to the fact that his mechanical system was replaced by electronic television", (from a 1952 biography of Baird subtitled "The Romance and Tragedy of the Pioneer of Television" by Sydney Moseley). Later still, in 1957 an attempt to convert the family home in Scotland to a public museum of television was thwarted by some powerful figures in the British government who said bluntly, "Baird did not invent television." In a book on television by Francis Wheen, the author seemingly went out of his way to discredit the pioneering work of Baird by quoting negative remarks and dismissing most of his groundbreaking work as feats of "one-upmanship", whilst disregarding any of Bair's recognised achievements. And even in 1991 in his book "Setmakers -A History of the Radio and Television Industry", author Keith Geddes stated, ..."apart from stimulating public interest in television it (Baird's low-definition television) contributed nothing to the high definition systems that succeeded it."

To dismiss Baird's contributions to the development of modern day television does a great disservice to one of the most brilliantly gifted inventors of our time. As you will read for yourself, Baird at times overcame insurmountable odds, ill health and poverty to achieve what many of his contemporaries regarded as the impossible. However, there was also another side to Baird that contradicts many of the so-called "established facts" about the man and his work. Even if only a small part of this other side of Baird's life story is to be believed, then the reader, by the end of this biography, should be in no doubt whatsoever that John Logie Baird's contribution to television, as well as modern day broadcasting technology has, for far too long, been seriously underrated.

The first full biography of Baird that I read, "Baird of Television" written by Ronald F. Tiltman, was written with the cooperation of John Logie Baird (as well as some Baird family members) himself and featured contributions from many of the people who witnessed his experiments less than a decade before the book's publication in 1933. This book is no doubt the basis for many reference works on both the life of Baird and his work in the development of television. But because it was written in his lifetime Baird would have been able to 'direct' the author to write the story that he (Baird) wanted the public to accept. But it is suggested here that by the time the book was published Baird was working covertly for the British military on equipment (these days we'd call it technology) that evolved out of his early television experiments. If this is true then it is more likely that a large part of his work was not exaggerated ...on the contrary- it was played down.

The basis for this supposition is from a 1986 publication entitled "The Secret Life of John Logie Baird" by Tom McArthur and Peter Waddell and is a detailed account of Baird's experiments into television and beyond. The book dispels many of the previously held myths surrounding Baird's work as well as disputing previously established 'facts' about when, where and how Baird first realised his dream of creating 'true' television. And by unearthing previously unknown details about the inventor and his secret work beyond the development of television, offers convincing evidence to support its claims.

I have also drawn some conclusions of my own and will offer my own opinion that the BBC, under the dictatorial leadership of John Reith, deliberately held back the development of television in this country and ultimately played its own part, even if inadveryently, in discrediting its inventor. It might also be seen that Baird didn't do himself any favours when it came to cementing his reputation and evidencing his own contributions. Much of his work was kept secret and dates were changed in order to hide the projects he was actually working on which has left inconsistencies in important dates and confusion with regards to certain 'discoveries'.

This biography is by no means an exhaustive work and if you require further reading I will recommend a number of very good books, that go into further detail, at the end of this article. After writing this biography in 2003 I received an email from Mr Malcolm Baird, John Logie Baird's son who said, "On a quick read-through of your bio, I thought that you had captured the broad gist very well." Since then I have done a little more research and this is incorporated into this newer version.

In the preface to his 1933 publication, Mr Tiltman wrote, "Baird was the first man in the world to achieve television, the first man to commercialise television. He placed British television in the van of world progress and, in my opinion, has maintained its pre-eminent position up till now. Who will deny this pioneer the status which is his by right of his accomplishments?"

Chapter One: A Son Of The Manse

Article: Laurence Marcus 2003 - 2007.

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