Education & Career :

Blake was the son of George A. and Hannah M. Blake, of Mintlynn, King's Lynn and husband of Lucy S. Blake, of Scarrdale Brow, Ambleside, Westmorland.

He was educated at Highgate School, in London.

He was a member of the Commercial Exchange in Newcastle. Originally a brewer, but became as an analytical chemist in Newcastle specialised in the analysing of Durham and Northumberland coal, as to the constituents of the different brands of which he became an expert.

Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

Natural causes is attributed those deaths due to causes that were not directly associated with the war. Included in this are wartime deaths resulting from, for example, theSpanish Influenza pandemic and its associated pneumonia problems and other attributions such as age and exhaustion. It also groups those who through Post Traumatic Stress committed suicide as a result of their experiences.

Detail :

Major Blake died of pneumonia in a Northern Musketry Camp of which he was Commandant.

The deceased officer was connected with the Territorial Artillery, and had been mobilised since the outbreak of the war.

He was given a military funeral with full honours at Whitley Bay New Cemetery. The procession started from 4 Holywell Avenue, Monkseaton to where the deceased officer's body had been conveyed after death. Leading the way to the cemetery was a specially selected firing party from units training in the district and consisting of some 220 men.

Then followed the band of the Prince of Wales' Own (West Yorks) regiment under Bandmaster J.J. Connor, followed by the coffin draped in the folds of the Union flag and borne upon a field gun carriage, eight non-commissioned officers walking on either side of the vehicle. The family mourners in three carriages came next followed by about 250 officers, non commissioned officers and men, the latter with side arms, representatives of all the units attached to the immediate district. Bringing up the rear were about 60 officers including those attached to the Tyne Garrison Headquarters'Staff. The burial service was conducted by the Rev. R.D.R. Greene, senior chaplain Tyne Garrison and the usual military honours were given to the dead by the buglers and firing party.

A very large concourse of people lined the route from Holywell Avenue to the burial ground.

Newcastle Daily Chronicle

Masonic :

He was a member of his old school lodge, Cholmeley Lodge No 1731. Founded in 1878, it is the oldest public school freemasons lodge, and was formed by members of Highgate School staff and villagers from Highgate.

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The (UK) National Archives
• Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
• ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Additional Source:

• Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
• Researcher : Bruce Littley