Robert Blake, Baron Blake

Robert Norman William Blake, Baron Blake, (23 December 1916 – 20 September 2003), was an English historian and peer. He is best known for his 1966 biography of Benjamin Disraeli, and for The Conservative Party from Peel to Churchill, which grew out of his 1968 Ford lectures.

Early life Robert Blake was born in Brundall, Norwich, the elder son of William Joseph Blake, a schoolmaster, and of Norah Lindley Blake, (née Daynes), the daughter of a leading Norwich solicitor. The family firm was Daynes, Hill & Perks, subsequently acquired by Eversheds. He was said to be related to Admiral Robert Blake, of the Parliamentary navy. and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was an Eldon Law Scholar. He graduated from Oxford with a First in Modern Greats and a hockey Blue. One of his contemporaries at Oxford was Sir Keith Joseph.

Blake had planned to go to the bar. However, when the Second World War broke out he was commissioned into the Royal Artillery, turning down an offer from a friend to join MI5. He was taken prisoner at the Siege of Tobruk in 1942, escaped from Italy in 1944, and was mentioned in despatches. He worked for MI6 from 1944 to 1946, where he was a colleague of Kim Philby. In the House of Lords he took the Conservative whip. In 1972 he moved the address in reply to the Queen's Speech.

His History of Rhodesia (1977) is, according to Kenneth O. Morgan, "essentially a study of white rule, ending with sharp comments on the illegal breakaway regime of Ian Smith, where Blake's views were much influenced by his friendship with the liberal Garfield Todd and his daughter".

In 1992 Blake gave the centenary Romanes Lecture on "Gladstone, Disraeli and Queen Victoria".

Blake 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.

Politics Concomitant with his study of Conservative history, Blake was a political Conservative, and took the Conservative whip in the House of Lords. He defended the British government during the Suez Crisis and in later life was a Eurosceptic. Blake was a Conservative member of Oxford City Council from 1957 to 1964.

Other activities and honours Blake served as a Trustee of the Rhodes Trust from 1971 to 1987, and as Chair of the Rhodes Trustees from 1983 to 1987.

Family Blake married Patricia Mary Waters (1925–1995), the daughter of a Norfolk farmer, on 22 August 1953; Hugh Trevor-Roper was the best man. The couple had three daughters. One daughter, Letita, is the Secretary of the Monte San Martino Trust, which awards English-language study bursaries to young Italians in recognition of assistance offered to thousands of escaping Allied prisoners-of-war during the Second World War, whose number included Blake. Another daughter, Victoria, is a crime novelist.

Works The Private Papers of Douglas Haig (1952; editor) The Unknown Prime Minister. The Life and Times of Andrew Bonar Law, 1858–1923 (1955) Disraeli (1966) Disraeli and Gladstone (1969; Stephen Lecture) The Conservative Party from Peel to Churchill (1970; later revised and updated as The Conservative Party from Peel to Thatcher (1985), then again as The Conservative Party from Peel to Major) The Office of Prime Minister (1975) Conservatism in an Age of Revolution (1976) History of Rhodesia (1977) Disraeli's Grand Tour: Benjamin Disraeli and the Holy Land, 1830–31 (1982) The English World (1982) The Decline of Power, 1915–1964 (1985; part of The Paladin History of England series) An Incongruous Partnership: 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 Wm Roger Louis) Winston Churchill (1998) Jardine Matheson. Traders of the Far East (1999)