Background
George Samuel Bird was born in 1792 in Goytre, Monmouthshire, Wales, the thirteenth child of Brevet Major Henry Bird (1748 - 1800) and Elizabeth née Hicks (1762 - 1842).
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George Bird
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Bird joined Monmouth"s East local militia on 12 February 1813. Sir James Campbell, the then Lieutenant Governor, gave encouragement to the proposed undertaking by promising a grant of land for the purpose, which was afterwards confirmed by Sir Edward Barnes (Governor of Ceylon), and thus commenced that cultivation on the site of two ancient Kandian palaces (Singapetia and Weyanpwatte). The mode of cultivation adopted, and the enormous protective duties then in favour of the British West Indies, rendered this, and two other coffee estates at Ganga Orowa and Matale that soon followed the one at Gampola, equally unprofitable.
Colonel
Bird"s death of cholera on 3 April 1829 so paralysed the operations at Gampola that George Bird was induced to abandon the property in 1833 and relocate to Kundasale, where together with Ackland Boyd and Company, they established a coffee plantation. Due to but the financial difficulties he was compelled again to abandon the plantation. He subsequently planted a third estate, with Mr Tindall at Imbulpitiya, in Oudabulatgaiunia however owing to age and infirmities had to abandon the venture and retire.
Bird also had investments in arrack renting and was the proprietor of the Udapalata tavern in 1825.
