As Baldrick prepares to resume his search for a cunning plan as part of Comic Relief and as we mark the 40th (yes 40th) anniversary of the first episode this year, we can reveal that Captain Blackadder studied at University College Dundee. Acting Captain Robert John Blackadder was a war hero who in 1918, while serving with the Royal Garrison Artillery, was awarded the Military Cross “for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty” during the withdrawal of his battery under heavy enemy fire at Beaurains on 28th March 1918. Robert Blackadder had studied Law at University College in session 1903-1904.
During the Great War he joined the Queen’s Westminster Riffles as a Rifleman, later gaining a commission in the Royal Garrison Artillery, eventually achieving the rank of Acting Major. Visit the Forces War Records website for more information about his life.
He was just one of several children of the distinguished Dundee architect and surveyor Robert Blackadder to study at University College. His sister was Agnes Forbes Blackadder (1875-1964), later Dr Agnes Savill, who was the first woman to graduate with an MA from the University of St Andrews. She studied at University College, Dundee at various times in the 1890s, as well as at the University of Glasgow.
During the Great War, by which time her husband, Dr Thomas Savill, had died, she served as radiologist at the Scottish Women’s Hospital in Royaumont, France. In 1917 she was awarded the Medaille des Epidemics by the French Government for her services. Read more about her war career and life here.
Three other brothers were also at University College, Dundee. William (1877-1940) attended in session 1897-1898 and David (b. 1881) attended in sessions 1899-1900 and 1900-1901 and like Robert studied law. Thomas (1887-1953) was at University College between 1904 and 1909 graduating with a BSc. William went on to earn a BSc in Engineering from the University of Edinburgh and became a successful engineer and then taught at Robert Gordon’s College and the Royal Technical College, Glasgow. He served in the Royal Garrison Artillery during the Great War and in 1923 was awarded a DSc by Edinburgh. In 1924 he became Professor of Engineering at the University of Aberdeen, a position he held until his death in 1940. Thomas emigrated to America in 1910 becoming head chemist in a large industrial concern in Pennsylvania, retiring in 1952. David had a distinguished career as a solicitor in Dundee and was secretary of the Dundee branch of the Scottish Clerks’ Association for 31 years.
To return to the start, might there be a link between the Dundee Blackadders and their fictional namesakes? Research to mark the centenary of the First World War found real life equivalents for many of the series’ characters, see for example, this article in The Herald.
The Blackadder name has been visible in Dundee for many years due to appearing in various iterations of the name of the eponymous Dundee law firm. Blackadder star and co-creator of the series, Rowan Atkinson is reported to have had a friend in a theatre group at the University of Dundee in the 1970s and even to have performed with this group in Edinburgh. Given this there is the tantalising possibility that Rowan Atkinson might have come across the name in Dundee and it stuck in his mind. Whether or not this is the case, the University does have a link with the various Blackadder TV series in that Steven Fry, who starred and Blackadder II and Blackadder Goes Forth, served as Rector from 1992-1998. Cheers Blackadder!
