William Garden Blaikie, FRSE, was a Scottish pastor, writer, biographer, and advocate for temperance who lived from 5 February 1820 in Aberdeen to 11 June 1899. James Ogilvie Blaikie, his father, was Aberdeen's first provost after the corporation was reformed. Following his education at Marischal College, where he was taught by Alexander Bain and David Masson, he moved to Edinburgh in 1839 to study theology under Thomas Chalmers. The Earl of Kintore, whose family he was related to, presented him to the Drumblade parish as their preacher in 1842. Following the peak of the Disruption of 1843, 474 pastors signed the instrument of demission, giving up their livelihoods, including Blaikie. Margaret Catherine Biggar (1823-1915) of Banff was his wife. Together, the Baikies established a "emigration home" that, between 1871 and 1891, "rescued" 700 children from the homes of "destitute drunks," sending 300 of them back to Canada. She also became involved with the Women's Foreign Missionary Society and served as the long-standing president (for 29 years) of the Scottish Christian Union, a women's temperance group that was independent but affiliated with the British Women's Temperance Association.
