His father subsequently became a clergyman and the family moved to the vicarage of St Swithun's Church, East Grinstead.
A house surgeon at the Salop Infirmary, Shrewsbury, Charles was accidentally shot in the back while hunting rabbits with a colleague.
[9][3] William, the youngest brother, was 19 when he accidentally fell under a train at Charing Cross Station on the night of 1 October 1889; he died in hospital some days later.
[11][1][3] In 1908 the vicarage at East Grinsted was destroyed in a fire, leaving Douglas Blakiston liable for £1000 as the building was under-insured.
In February 1907, the president of Trinity Henry Francis Pelham died suddenly in office.
[18] He wrote 1200 letters asking for donations,[19] partially designed the building himself and paid five percent of its cost from his own pocket.
[1][8] He was strongly against Oxford degrees being awarded to women,[1] which began while he served as university vice-chancellor and in spite of all he could to do oppose it.
[4] The central character in Joanna Cannan's 1931 satirical novel High Table, Theodore Fletcher, is a thinly-disguised, cruel caricature of him.
[8] During his presidency, Blakiston was largely responsible for college admissions and developed a particular notoriety for refusing applications to Trinity from non-white and mixed-race candidates.
After living at Trinity College for 57 years,[4] Blakiston moved to Boars Hill, near Oxford.
[24] 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.
[29] In 1894, he wrote an English translation of several of Cicero's works, including the Catiline Orations and Pro Milone.