J. DEAN, NO. 4 STRAND, LONDON, CIRCA 1796-98

Sir David Baird, Bt., G.C.B. (1757-1829) entered the army in 1772 and witnessed extensive service in India (Second, Third and Fourth Anglo-Mysore Wars), commanded the Indian Army sent to help expel the French from Egypt in support of Ralph Abercromby, commanded the expedition to capture Cape Town from the Dutch, aided the expedition against Buenos Aires and was wounded whilst serving as a divisional general in the Copenhagen expedition. He served under Sir John Moore in the Peninsular War and briefly commanded in the field at Corunna after Moore's death before being wounded himself. From such active service it is for his leading of the storming party that took Tipu Sultan's fortress stronghold at Seringapatam in 1799 that stands as his most famous feat of arms, captured by Sir David Wilkie in his painting titled 'General Sir David Baird Discovering the Body of Sultan Tippoo Sahib after having Captured Seringapatam, on the 4th May, 1799' displayed in the Scottish National Gallery. Baird had been captured and imprisoned at Seringapatam for four years following the Battle of Pollilur in September 1780.

Joseph Dean is recorded as a sword cutler at No. 4 Strand between 1791 and 1803. Baird was promoted to Colonel in 1795 and would have carried this sword until 1798 when he was promoted to Major General.