| Sir Henry Arthur Blake | |
|---|---|
| 12th Governor of Hong Kong | |
| In office 25 November 1898 – 29 July 1903 |
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| Monarch | Victoria Edward VII |
| Preceded by | Sir William Robinson |
| Succeeded by | Sir Matthew Nathan |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 8 January 1840 Limerick, Ireland |
| Died | 13 February 1918 (aged 78) |
| Spouse(s) | Jeannie Irwin Edith Blake |
| Profession | draper's assistant, constable, magistrate, colonial administrator |
Sir Henry Arthur Blake GCMG, DL (Chinese name: 卜力; 1840–1918) was a British colonial administrator, Governor of Hong Kong from 1898 to 1903.
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Blake was born in Limerick, Ireland on 8 January 1840. He was the son of Jane Lane and Peter Blake, a Galway-born county Inspector of the Irish Constabulary. 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.
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.
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 1889. In 1886 he was appointed to Queensland, but resigned without entering the administration. In 1889 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.
In 1898 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 (now the LegCo Chambers) in 1903.
Blake was appointed Governor of Ceylon at the end of his tenure in Hong Kong, 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 where they both died and were buried.[1]
Blake married twice: Jeannie Irwin in 1862 (she died in 1866), and Edith Bernal-Osborne in 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?.[2]
Blake died on 23 February 1918.
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.[3]
| Government offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Sir Charles Cameron Lees |
Governor of the Bahamas 1884–1887 |
Succeeded by Ambrose Shea |
| Preceded by Sir George 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 Sir 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 Everard F. im Thurn, acting |
Governor of Ceylon 1903–1907 |
Succeeded by Hugh Clifford, acting |
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