Henry Arthur Blake

Sir Henry Arthur Blake
GCMG DL
19th Governor of British Ceylon
In office
3 December 1903 – 11 July 1907
Monarch Edward VII
Preceded by Sir Everard im Thurn
acting governor
Succeeded by Hugh Clifford
acting governor
12th Governor of Hong Kong
In office
25 November 1898 – 29 July 1903
Monarch Queen Victoria
Edward VII
Preceded by Sir William Robinson
Succeeded by Sir Matthew Nathan
Personal details
Born (1840-01-08)8 January 1840
Limerick, Ireland
Died 13 February 1918(1918-02-13) (aged 78)
Spouse(s) Jeannie Irwin
Edith Blake
Profession Draper's assistant, constable, magistrate, colonial administrator

Sir Henry Arthur Blake GCMG DL[1] (Chinese: 卜力; pinyin: Bo lì; 8 January 1840 – 23 February 1918) was a British colonial administrator and Governor-General of Hong Kong from 1898 to 1903.

Early life, family and career

Blake was born in Limerick, Ireland. He was the son of Peter Blake of Corbally Castle (c. 1805 – bur. St. Ann's, Dublin, 19 November 1850), a Galway-born county Inspector of the Irish Constabulary, and wife (m. Mobarnan, County Tipperary) Jane Lane (Lanespark, County Tipperary, 5 March 1819 – ?), daughter of John Lane of Lanespark, County Tipperary, and paternal grandson of Peter Blake of Corbally Castle, County Galway (? – 1842, bur. Peter’s Well, County Galway) and wife (m. 14 May 1800) Mary Browne, daughter of The Hon. John Browne and wife Mary Cocks and paternal granddaughter of John Browne, 1st Earl of Altamont, and wife Anne Gore. He was included among the descendants the Blakes of Corbally Castle, Kilmoylan, County Galway, the descendants of Peter Blake (? – 1712), who was granted the lands of Corbally, Kilmoylan, County Galway, on 20 December 1697, and wife Magdeline Martin, the Blakes. Peter Blake was a son of Sir Richard Blake and wife Gyles Kirwan.[2][3]

Blake started out as a draper's assistant at a haberdashery, but joined the Irish Constabulary in 1859, where he worked as an inspector and Resident Magistrate of Duff Hill.

In 1876 he was appointed RM to Tuam, an especially disturbed district in the west of Ireland, where he was noted as judicious and active. In 1882, he was promoted to Special Resident Magistrate.

Early colonial services

In 1884, Blake was made Governor of Bahamas, a position he held until 1887. In this year, he moved to Newfoundland, where he was governor until 1888/9. In 1886 he was appointed to Queensland, but resigned without entering the administration. In 1888/9 he became the Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief of Jamaica. His term was extended in 1894 and 1896, at the request of Legislature and public bodies of the island, until 1897.

Governor of Hong Kong

In 1897/8 he was appointed Governor of Hong Kong, a position he held until 1903. Five months before he arrived in Hong Kong, the British Government negotiated an agreement with the Imperial Chinese Government allowing the Hong Kong Government to lease the New Territories for 99 years. During Blake's tenure, he sent in administrators to the New Territories to assert control. The residents of the area organised a tough resistance movement, which was subdued with the use of British troops under Commander Gascoigne.

Blake left Hong Kong immediately after he attended the inauguration of the Supreme Court building (Legislative Council of Hong Kong Chambers during 1985 to 2011) in 1903.

Post-Hong Kong

Blake was appointed Governor of Ceylon at the end of his tenure in Hong Kong in 1903, and he served in that capacity until 1907. This was his last post in the Colonial Service. The Blakes retired to Myrtle Grove in Youghal, County Cork (the alleged house of Sir Walter Raleigh, who never in fact lived there), where they both died and were buried.[4]

Personal life

Blake married twice: Jeannie Irwin in 1862 (she died in 1866), and Edith Bernal Osborne in Ireland, on 7 February 1874 (she was the daughter of MP Ralph Bernal Osborne).[3] He had two sons, and one daughter Olive, who married John Bernard Arbuthnot. During his period as Governor of Bermuda, a watercolour of his three children, Children Under a Palm, was painted by Winslow Homer. The painting was subsequently featured on the BBC TV programme, Fake or Fortune?.[5]

Honours

Places named after him

The community of Blaketown in Canada was named in his honour when he was the governor of Newfoundland. Blake Garden, Blake Dock, the former pier, Blake Pier (卜公碼頭), in Hong Kong are named after him.

The Bauhinia blakeana, discovered in Hong Kong around 1880, was named after him (Blake was very interested in botany). It became an emblem of Hong Kong in 1965 and has been the flower of Hong Kong since 1997. It appears on Hong Kong's flags and coins.

The John Crow Mountains in Jamaica were renamed the Blake Mountains in 1890 but the name did not stick.[6]

See also

Publications

References

  1. ↑ Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 1, page 120.
  2. ↑ Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd, editor, Burke's Irish Family Records (London, U.K.: Burkes Peerage Ltd, 1976), Blake, page 120.
  3. 1 2 http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~battle/celeb/wilde.htm
  4. ↑ Independent article by Patrick Cockburn
  5. ↑ "Homer". Fake or Fortune?. Episode 2. 2011-06-26. BBC. Retrieved 2011-08-04.
  6. ↑ Higman, B W; Hudson (2009). Jamaican Place Names. B J (1st ed.). Mona, Jamaica: University of the West Indies Press. pp. 89–90. ISBN 978-976-640-217-4.

External links

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Henry Arthur Blake
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Government offices
Preceded by
Sir Charles Cameron Lees		 Governor of the Bahamas
1884–1887 		Succeeded by
Ambrose Shea
Preceded by
Sir William Des Vœux		 Colonial Governor of Newfoundland
1887–1889 		Succeeded by
Sir John Terence Nicholls O'Brien
Preceded by
Sir Henry Wylie Norman		 Governor of Jamaica
1889–1898 		Succeeded by
Augustus William Lawson Hemming
Preceded by
Major-General Wilsone Black, Acting Administrator		 Governor of Hong Kong
1898–1903 		Succeeded by
Sir Francis Henry May, Acting Administrator
Preceded by
Sir Everard im Thurn
acting governor		 Governor of Ceylon
1903–1907 		Succeeded by
Hugh Clifford
acting governor


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