Walter W. Blackie

Walter Wilfrid Blackie (1860–1953) was the grandson of John Blackie (1782–1874), founder in 1809 of the Glasgow publishing house which became Blackie & Son Ltd. 1 He was born in Glasgow and educated at the Glasgow Academy and in Eberfeld, Germany, before taking a B.Sc. at the University of Glasgow. He joined the family business in 1879, but after a year he went to Canada, where he worked on farms and in lumber camps in Ontario. He followed this with a spell in the New York office of the publishers Appleton, before returning to Glasgow, and Blackie & Son, in 1884. He 'gave himself largely to the educational side of the firm's activities', educational and children's books being a major part of Blackie & Son's output. He became chairman on the death of his elder brother, J. Alexander Blackie, in 1918, and retired in 1937. He also served as a governor of the West of Scotland Agricultural College.