Education
Harrow School.
Harrow School.
Bird"s fame as a cricketer in the years before the First World War rested more on his deeds as a schoolboy than on his prowess as a county or Test player. In 1907, as captain of the Harrow School team, he scored two centuries in the annual match at Lord"s against Eton College that was one of the social highlights of the year. He played a few games for Lancashire that season, then disappeared for two years, reappearing in 1909 with Surrey.
On a fairly flimsy record, he was taken by HDG Leveson-Gower on the 1909-1910 Master Control Console tour to South Africa, where he played in all five Tests.
In the fourth match at Cape Town he scored 57 in the first innings. Back in England, Bird played regularly for Surrey in 1910 and took over as the county"s captain from Leveson-Gower for two years from 1911.
A forceful right-handed batsman, he scored 1,000 runs in three seasons and also took useful wickets with medium-pace bowling. But he appears never to have been in serious contention for a Test place until selected again for a South African tour in 1913-1914, under Johnny Douglas.
Bird played only a few first-class matches after the First World War.
He was coach at his old school and later at Surrey, but Wisden reported that he had been ill for several years before his death at the age of 45.