legislative councillor, was born in Somerset on 29 July 1935, the son of Norman David Blake (youngest son of Robert BLAKE) and Alice Vicars Blake, née Boyle.

He was educated at Crewkerne School and the West of Scotland Agricultural College and served his national service in the army.

Blake arrived in the Falkland Islands in 1958 and worked at Hill Cove as cadet/assistant manager.

From 1965 he was manager at Hill Cove until 1987 when the farm was sold to the Falkland Islands Government. He oversaw the division of the land and livestock into eight sections and purchased one of the smaller ones - The Peaks - which he ran with his wife until his retirement in 1999.

He served as a nominated member of LegCo from 1964-8 and an elected member from 1972-7 and again from 1981-9, when he did not seek re-election. He sat on ExCo on numerous occasions: 1972-5; 1981-2; 1983-4; and 1986-7.

In 1975, he was the first Falklands representative at a Commonwealth Parliamentary Association conference in India and subsequently attended conferences in Mauritius, Fiji, Kenya, the Isle of Man and Saskatchewan. Always interested in the Constitution of the Islands, he sat in LegCo in 1964 when the number of official members was reduced to two and again in the early seventies when nominated members were abolished.

In March 1982, he and Councillor John Cheek formed part of the British delegation which met the Argentines for talks in New York. In 2002, he was nominated the first Speaker of the LegCo He was appointed Justice of the Peace in 1969 and awarded the OBE in 1978.

In 1983, during the visit of Mrs Thatcher to the Islands, Blake asked the Prime Minister at a joint meeting of Councils when the Falklands could expect their own fishing zone. He was told that Mrs Thatcher was in the Falklands to celebrate the liberation of the Islands, not to discuss fishing.

It was at the end of 1986 that the fishery conservation zone was established, transforming the economy of the Falklands

Blake married Sally Gwynfa Clement in 1965. They have two sons, Paul (b1969) and Alex (b1972).

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