Difference between revisions of "Geoffrey Blake"

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Revision as of 15:57, 18 November 2008

Vice-Admiral Sir Geoffrey Blake' was an officer of the Royal Navy during the First World War, when he served as Gunnery Officer of the Grand Fleet's flagship Iron Duke and subsequently served as Commander in the post-1917 flagship, Queen Elizabeth.

Early Life and Career

Blake was born on 16 September 1882 at Bramley House, Alverstoke, Hampshire, the son of Thomas Naish Blake (1826–1906), brewer, and his wife, Fanny (1842–1931), daughter of Theophilus Leahy. Educated at Winchester College, he entered the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, in 1897. In 1903 he was given his first command, torpedo boat 59, and promoted lieutenant. In 1911 he married Jean St John Carr (1888–1963), and they had two daughters. Appointed gunnery officer of Iron Duke and promoted commander in 1914, his direction of the ship's gunnery at Jutland resulted in several hits on a German battleship and he was appointed to the DSO. Serving as executive officer on Queen Elizabeth (1917–18), he was noted as exceptionally promising for high command. In December 1918 he was promoted captain and in 1919–20 acted as naval attaché in Washington. Blake won further praise as flag captain in Queen Elizabeth (1921–3). After the directorship of the Royal Naval Staff College (1926–7), he became chief of staff to the commander-in-chief, Atlantic Fleet (1927–9), and in 1929 was appointed CB and served as first naval member of the New Zealand navy board. Promoted rear-admiral in April 1931, he served as fourth sea lord between 1932 and 1935. Promoted vice-admiral in 1935, he became second in command of the Mediterranean Fleet, earning congratulations for his tactful handling of British interests during the Spanish Civil War, and in May 1937 he was appointed KCB.

Unsparing in his efforts to achieve the highest standards of efficiency, discipline, and seamanship, Blake was highly respected and extremely popular throughout the service. It was confidently expected that ultimately he would become first sea lord. However, in June 1937, while swimming at Malta, he suffered a pulmonary embolism and thrombosis of the leg. He made an excellent recovery but, though the Admiralty was desperate for him to remain in the service, he feared his illness might recur and was anxious about his family's welfare. He retired on 15 January 1938 and took up a post with British Power Boats. Sheafs of letters testified to the navy's anguish at the loss of its most promising vice-admiral.

In 1940 Blake returned as assistant chief of the naval staff (foreign), relieving Admiral Pound, the first sea lord, of some of his burdens. Though Blake was closer to Pound than any other officer (Pound thought he had a greater range of abilities than Andrew Cunningham, whose career profited from Blake's illness), Blake often opposed both Churchill and Pound with vigour. He condemned the assault on the French fleet at Mers al-Kebir in July 1940, defended Vice-Admiral Sir James Somerville when Churchill and Pound, quite unjustifiably, wished to remove him from the command of force H, and described operation Ration, the seizure of French merchantmen, as stupid. He was opposed equally firmly to the dispatch of Prince of Wales and Repulse to Singapore. When Admiral Harold R. (Betty) Stark went to London in 1942 in command of American naval forces in Europe, Blake was appointed flag officer liaison United States and enjoyed a close relationship with the affable Stark. They oversaw the successful Anglo-American naval co-operation in the battle of the Atlantic and the great combined operations in the Mediterranean and Normandy; for his part, Blake was appointed to the American legion of honour (chief commander). Between 1945 and 1949 he served as gentleman usher of the black rod. He was consulted frequently by post-war first sea lords and died on 18 July 1968 at 42 Burton Court, London.

A charming and good-humoured man of the utmost integrity, he was the Royal Navy's ‘lost leader’. Admiral of the Fleet Lord Chatfield intended him to take command of the Home Fleet in September 1940 and become first sea lord in 1943. Had he done so, the Royal Navy would have been directed with acute intelligence, decisiveness, a clear strategic vision, and, probably, freedom from major errors.