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.
[2] In 1947 he became a student (fellow) and tutor in Politics at Christ Church, Oxford, replacing Lord Pakenham, who had joined Clement Attlee's government.
His History of Rhodesia (1978) 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 1987 Lord Blake was nominated in the election for the Oxford Chancellorship, but lost to Roy Jenkins, although polling ahead of Edward Heath.
Meanwhile we would have the biggest quango of all time: a House whose members would owe their seats solely to past or present prime ministerial patronage.
The hereditary system, whatever its logical defects, does produce some people of independent opinions and also some who are much younger than the normal run of middle-aged legislators ... My guess is that after achieving stage one, which would involve a great deal of parliamentary time and much controversy, a Labour Cabinet would rest on its oars and postpone for many years any plans for an elective chamber.
There are immense difficulties involved – its powers, electoral system, and above all relations with the Commons, which would certainly resent the creation of a body with rival claims to democratic legitimacy.
[1] He was editor of the Dictionary of National Biography, a Trustee of the British Museum, and Chairman of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts.
[9] Blake married Patricia Mary Waters (1925–1995), the daughter of a Norfolk farmer, on 22 August 1953; Hugh Trevor-Roper was the best man.
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.