Herbert Edward Douglas Blakiston

Herbert Edward Douglas Blakiston (5 September 1862 – 29 July 1942) was an English academic and clergyman who served as president of Trinity College, Oxford, and as vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford.

Family and early life Herbert Blakiston was born in Hastings the son of artist Douglas Yeoman Blakiston and Sophia Matilda Dent. His father subsequently became a clergyman and the family moved to the vicarage of St Swithun's Church, East Grinstead. Blakistone was a descendant of Sir Matthew Blakiston, the Lord Mayor of London from 1760 to 1761; As he wore glasses he acquired the nickname "Blinks" in school, which followed him for the remainder of his life.

Outside of Trinity College, Blakiston had also been appointed university proctor in 1899. He was the university auditor from 1903 to 1917 and became a member of the Hebdomadal Council in 1915.

Blakiston was devoted to his college and its students. He had the lifelong habit of keeping clippings from The Times that mentioned any former student. He was badly affected by the deaths of 155 Trinity men during the First World War, many known to him personally. In many cases he personally visited the families of former-students who had been killed to offer condolences. After the war, he devoted much effort to a new library that was to be their memorial. He wrote 1200 letters asking for donations, partially designed the building himself and paid five percent of its cost from his own pocket.

Blakiston was later described as unsociable, snobbish, parsimonious and obsessed with finance. He had few close friends and made enemies easily. His racism was notable even by the standards of the time and he became notorious for it. He was strongly against Oxford degrees being awarded to women, Notably, he stubbornly resisted pressure from the India Office to admit undergraduates from British India, something that government department was attempting to promote. During this time, the traditional rivalry between Trinity and Balliol College took on a racial tone as Balliol admitted a number of Asian students. Although he was under no compulsion to retire from the College Presidency, he did so on 1 September 1938, having held the post for 31 years. On 28 July 1942, he was struck by a motorist while walking in Boars Hill; he died the next day in the Radcliffe Infirmary without regaining consciousness. His funeral took place in the Trinity College chapel and his ashes were interred in the antechapel. He left £100,055 in his will. His bequests were to Oxford University and Trinity College for the purchase of works of art. and one painted from a photograph in 1943 by Allan Gwynne-Jones.

Works Blakiston wrote articles for the Dictionary of National Biography, including the entry for the explorer Thomas Blakiston. In 1894, he wrote an English translation of several of Cicero's works, including the Catiline Orations and Pro Milone. He wrote a brief work on Durham College, Oxford and a meticulously-researched history of Trinity College that was published in 1898. He also wrote a collection of ghost stories in Latin.