Children 5 daughters Name Walter Blaikie | Parents William Garden Blaikie Grandparents James Blaikie | |
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Occupation Civil engineerPrinterwriterhistorian Spouse(s) Janet Marshall Macfie (1852–1942) Died May 3, 1928, Edinburgh, United Kingdom | ||
Walter Biggar Blaikie FRSE DL LLD (23 November 1847 in Pilrig, Edinburgh – 3 May 1928) was a Scottish civil engineer, printer, historian and astronomer.
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Life
Second of the seven recorded sons of William Garden Blaikie, minister of Pilrig Free Church, and Margaret Catherine Biggar, Walter Biggar Blaikie was educated at Edinburgh Academy and Edinburgh University.
He worked as a civil engineer with the Department for Public Works in India from 1870 until 1873, but after the birth of their first child he and his wife returned to Scotland to work for the large engineering firm of Blyth & Blyth where he worked until 1880. In 1879, he became involved in the printing business which became T and A Constable of Edinburgh. He would work with the firm for almost fifty years, and for many years he ran it.
He became one of the leading scholars of the Jacobite period, especially of the life of Bonnie Prince Charlie.
In 1897 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, his proposers being John George Bartholomew, Sir John Murray, Frederick Bailey and Hugh Robert Mill. He served as Vice President of the Society 1924 to 1927.
He is buried in the family plot in the north-east corner of the north extension to St Cuthberts Churchyard in Edinburgh. He is the last named on a badly eroded stone.
Walter Blaikie Collection
In 1928 his daughters donated a large collection of his historical papers concerning the Jacobite Uprising and the Stuarts to the National Library of Scotland. This ran to 1076 printed items in 756 volumes, 42 manuscripts, 3 charters and around 400 engravings.