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
Spouse(s)	Jeannie Irwin Edith Blake
Profession	Draper's assistant, constable, magistrate, colonial administrator

Sir Henry Arthur Blake GCMG DL (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.

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.

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). 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?.

Honours

• Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG), 1887
• Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG), 1888
• Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG), 1897
• Knight of Justice of Order of St. John of Jerusalem
• Fellow of Royal Geographical Society (FRGS)
• JP
• DL
• Fellow of Royal Colonial Institute (FRCI)
• Fellow of Institute of Directors (FIoD)
• Honorary Colonel of Ceylon Mounted Rifles
• District Grand Master Ceylon Freemasons
• Member, Council Royal Dublin Societ
• Honorary Member, Royal Zoological Society, London

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.

See also

• History of Hong Kong
• The Tribes of Galway – see Blake

Publications

• MCGRATH, Terence, pseud. [i.e. Sir Henry Arthur Blake.] 1880, Pictures from Ireland. Kegan Paul & Co.: London, 1880. Available from archive.org

References

• Dictionary of Irish Biography, pp. 583–84, Cambridge, 2010.
• Biography at Government House The Governorship of Newfoundland and Labrador

External links

• Works by Henry Arthur Blake at Project Gutenberg
• http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~battle/celeb/wilde.htm

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