Celebrity cook Clarissa Dickson Wright will be officially installed as the new Rector of the University of Aberdeen at a ceremony at Marischal College tomorrow (Wednesday, March 3). She is the first female to be appointed to the post at Aberdeen during its 500-year history.
Miss Dickson Wright, one half of the popular cult TV series Two Fat Ladies, will succeed the former Rector, North-east Euro-MP Dr Allan Macartney, who died in office last August. She will serve as Rector for a period of three years.
The ceremony at the Mitchell Hall will start at 4pm with an academic procession comprising the Lord Provost and local councillors, representatives of the Incorporated Trades of Aberdeen, the Chamber of Commerce, the Sheriff Principal and the Dean of Guild. There will also be a student procession including student office bearers from the other Scottish universities.
The audience will be made up of students, university staff and specially invited guests of Miss Dickson Wright, including Lord and Lady Macdonald, Lord Douglas-Hamilton, HSH Princess Olga Romanoff and Jane Root, the new Controller of BBC2.
Miss Dickson Wright was born in London in 1947. Her father, Arthur Dickson Wright, was the Queen Mother’s surgeon. She read law at University College London, completing her undergraduate law degree and her bar exams in just three years instead of the usual six. At the age of 21, she became the youngest woman to be called to the Bar.
Following several successful years practising as a barrister, Miss Dickson Wright embarked on a radical career change into the world of food and is now one of the UK’s favourite chefs, best known for her part in the award-winning series Two Fat Ladies. The show has been an enormous success both in the UK and abroad and is screened in Scandinavia, the US, Australia, Israel, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. It has even been dubbed into Japanese.
Miss Dickson Wright also owns The Cooks Bookshop in Edinburgh and has recently started her own catering company. She also writes a weekly column for Scotland on Sunday and has contributed to various other national and regional papers.
The ceremony will be preceded by a wine reception for students and guests at Marischal Museum at 3pm. Attendance is free, but tickets can be obtained from the Union, the Students Representative Council, the Medical Faculty Office and the Butchart Recreation Centre.
Following the ceremony, the Rector will be piped from Marischal College to the Kirkgate Bar in the presence of her student electors.
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Photo Opportunities:
1. Miss Dickson Wright will be available for photographs/filming at 2.45pm in the Quad at Marischal College, when she will be accompanied by a Triumph Thunderbird motorbike, identical to that featured in the hit TV series Two Fat Ladies. The bike has been kindly provided by Shirlaws of Aberdeen.
2. Miss Dickson Wright will be officially installed by David Welsh, President of the Student Representative Council in the ceremony at the Mitchell Hall. She will also deliver an address to the audience.
3. Miss Dickson Wright will leave Marischal College at 5pm and will be carried by the student mascot, Angus the Bull, to the Kirkgate Bar where she will follow tradition and buy a round of drinks for her student supporters.