Blake was born in Limerick, Ireland. He was the son of Peter Blake of Corbally Castle, a Galway-born county Inspector of the Irish Constabulary, and wife Jane Lane, daughter of John Lane of Lanespark, County Tipperary, and paternal grandson of Peter Blake of Corbally Castle, County Galway and wife 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, 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 clerk in the Bank of Ireland but lasted only 18 months before resigning and commencing a cadetship in the Irish Constabulary in 1857. He became a special inspector two years later. In 1876, he was appointed Resident Magistrate 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. He was appointed to Queensland in 1886 but resigned without entering the administration, following an imbroglio between Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lord Knutsford, and the premier of Queensland, Sir Thomas M'Ilwraith, on the appointment. In 1887, he moved to Newfoundland, where he was governor until the end of 1888, being knighted on 7 November that year. In 1889 he became the Captain-General and Governor 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
On 25 November 1898, Blake was appointed Governor of Hong Kong, a position he held until November 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, killing about 500 Hong Kong-Tai Po villagers. Blake left Hong Kong immediately after he attended the laying of the foundation stone of the Supreme Court building on 12 November 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. A freshly retired Blake impressed George Morrison with his bitterness at not landing a Privy Council sinecure in gratitude for his 41 years' public service. The Blakes retired to Myrtle Grove in Youghal, County Cork, where they both died and were buried.
Personal life
Blake married twice: Jeannie Irwin in 1862, and Edith Bernal Osborne in Ireland, on 7 February 1874. He had two sons, and one daughter Olive, who married John Bernard Arbuthnot. During his period as Governor of The Bahamas, 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?
The community of Blaketown in Canada was named in his honour when he was the governor of Newfoundland. Blake Garden, Blake Pier and Blake Block are named after him. The Bauhinia blakeana, discovered in Hong Kong around 1880, was named after him. It became an emblem of Hong Kong in 1965 and has been the official emblem from 1 July 1997. It appears on the flag of Hong Kong and its currency. The John Crow Mountains in Jamaica were renamed the Blake Mountains in 1890 but the name did not stick.
Publications
MCGRATH, Terence, pseud. 1880, Pictures from Ireland. Kegan Paul & Co.: London, 1880.
