Robert Blake, Baron Blake
Encyclopedia
Robert Norman William Blake, Baron Blake (23 December 1916 - 20 September 2003) was an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

. He is best known for his 1966 biography of Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, KG, PC, FRS, was a British Prime Minister, parliamentarian, Conservative statesman and literary figure. Starting from comparatively humble origins, he served in government for three decades, twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom...

, and for The Conservative Party from Peel to Churchill, which grew out of his 1968 Ford lectures. He was created a life peer
Life peer
In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the Peerage whose titles cannot be inherited. Nowadays life peerages, always of baronial rank, are created under the Life Peerages Act 1958 and entitle the holders to seats in the House of Lords, presuming they meet qualifications such as...

 in 1971 as Baron Blake, of Braydeston in the County of Norfolk.

He was educated at Norwich School
Norwich School (educational institution)
Norwich School is an independent school located in Norwich, United Kingdom. It is one of the oldest schools in the world, with a traceable history to 1096, and is a member of The Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference.It is a fee-paying, co-educational day school and has one of the best...

 and Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...

, where he got a First in PPE and a hockey Blue. He served in the Royal Artillery
Royal Artillery
The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery , is the artillery arm of the British Army. Despite its name, it comprises a number of regiments.-History:...

 during the war, was taken prisoner in Tobruk
Tobruk
Tobruk or Tubruq is a city, seaport, and peninsula on Libya's eastern Mediterranean coast, near the border with Egypt. It is the capital of the Butnan District and has a population of 120,000 ....

 in 1942, escaped Italy in 1944 and was mentioned in despatches. He was in MI6 from 1944 to 1946. In 1947 he became Tutor in Politics at Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...

, and in 1968 was elected Provost of The Queen's College, Oxford
The Queen's College, Oxford
The Queen's College, founded 1341, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Queen's is centrally situated on the High Street, and is renowned for its 18th-century architecture...

, a post held until retirement in 1987. Blake was a good friend of the late historian Hugh Trevor-Roper. He was for many years Senior Member (the University Don responsible for ruling on internal disputes such as accusations of electoral malpractice) of the Oxford University Conservative Association
Oxford University Conservative Association
The Oxford University Conservative Association, or OUCA is a student political organisation founded in 1924 whose members are drawn from the University of Oxford...

. In 1987 he was nominated in the election for the Oxford Chancellorship
University of Oxford Chancellor election, 1987
The 1987 University of Oxford election for the position of Chancellor was called upon the death of the incumbent Chancellor, Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton on 29 December 1986.-Electorate:...

, but lost to Roy Jenkins
Roy Jenkins
Roy Harris Jenkins, Baron Jenkins of Hillhead OM, PC was a British politician.The son of a Welsh coal miner who later became a union official and Labour MP, Roy Jenkins served with distinction in World War II. Elected to Parliament as a Labour member in 1948, he served in several major posts in...

, although polling ahead of former Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath
Edward Heath
Sir Edward Richard George "Ted" Heath, KG, MBE, PC was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and as Leader of the Conservative Party ....

.

His History of Rhodesia (1978) is a notable work on the development of that area: critical but sympathetic. It makes interesting reading in conjunction with the less critical Sunrise on the Zambezi (1953).

Blake opposed the Labour Party's policy to abolish the hereditary peers in the House of Lords:

"Abolition of the hereditary vote...is alleged to be phase one of a policy to substitute an elective Upper House for the existing chamber. Meanwhile we would have the biggest quango of all time: a House whose members would owe their seats solely to past or present prime ministerial patronage. Even as an interim measure, this would be thoroughly undesirable, and certainly no improvement on the present composition. The hereditary system, whatever its logical defects, does produce some people of independent opinions and also some who are much younger than the normal run of middle-aged legislators...My guess is that after achieving stage one, which would involve a great deal of parliamentary time and much controversy, a Labour Cabinet would rest on its oars and postpone for many years any plans for an elective chamber. There are immense difficulties involved – its powers, electoral system, and above all relations with the Commons, which would certainly resent the creation of a body with rival claims to democratic legitimacy."

Works

  • The Unknown Prime Minister. The Life and Times of Andrew Bonar Law, 1858-1923 (1955).
  • Disraeli (1966).
  • Disraeli and Gladstone (1969) (Stephen Lecture).
  • Conservative Party from Peel to Churchill (1970) (later revised and updated as Conservative Party from Peel to Thatcher, then again as Conservative Party from Peel to Major).
  • The Office of Prime Minister (1975).
  • Conservatism in an Age of Revolution (1976).
  • History of Rhodesia (1978).
  • Disraeli's Grand Tour: Benjamin Disraeli and the Holy Land, 1830-31 (1982).
  • The Decline of Power, 1915-1964 (1985) (part of The Paladin History of England series).
  • An Incongruous Relationship. Lloyd George and Bonar Law (1992) (The Welsh Political Archive Lecture).
  • Gladstone, Disraeli and Queen Victoria. Centenary Romanes Lecture (1993).
  • Churchill: A Major New Assessment of His Life in Peace and War (1993) (edited with W. M. Louis).
  • Winston Churchill (1998).
  • Jardine Matheson. Traders of the Far East (1999).
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