Originally a character used in cartoons by Sir David Low, the New-Zealand-born political cartoonist. He was a stout muddled gentleman with a large military moustache, explaining that the fascist dictators were not as bad as they were made out to be. He first appeared in 1934. Low's virulently anti-fascist attacks got him onto a Nazi death list.

The idea was taken up by a superb 1943 film The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, written and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. It starred Roger Livesey as the Colonel Blimp figure (the character's name was Clive Candy), with Deborah Kerr and Anton Walbrook. Although Candy's attitude was Blimpish and therefore meritoriously patriotic, the film questioned and to some extent undermined this: so Churchill banned the export of the film, while outcome of the War was in doubt.