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A portrait of Victoria Cross recipient Cameron Stewart Baird will be put on permanent display at an Australian Defence Force base named in his honour.
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Serco Defence has confirmed that it has accepted delivery of the painting and will support its transfer to forward operating base at Al Minhad Air Base (AMAB) in the United Arab Emirates, named Camp Baird in 2014 to honour the fallen hero.
In 2013, CPL Baird was killed while on operational service in Afghanistan for the Australian Army, and was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for Australia, the 100th Australian to be bestowed the award.
The portrait, by artist George Petrou, was formally received by Serco Defence managing director Clint Thomas AM, CSC, at a special event at the Australian National Veterans Art Museum (ANVAM) in Melbourne yesterday, with CPL Baird’s father, Doug Baird, attending the presentation, along with ANVAM chairman and director Mark Johnston and Brigadier David Smith AM, DSM, representing the Australian Defence Force.
“Serco is proud to have been supporting the Australian Defence Force and its members in the Middle East for more than eight years,” Thomas said.
“I am very pleased that we have been able to play a small part in ensuring this wonderful painting of CPL Baird can be put on permanent display in the forward operating base that proudly bears and honours his name.”
“We appreciate the gesture by Serco to build on CPL Baird’s memory and legacy through art,” Johnston said.
“Memorialising him in this way provides a link to CPL Baird’s own connection to the arts, most famously through his emotional musical tribute to his mate, Private Luke Worsley, which is just one of many ways CPL Baird will be remembered.”
