Stewart Blacker

2022-10-09T15:25:06Z

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{{Short description|British Army officer and weapon inventor (1887–1964)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2022}}
{{Infobox military person
| honorific_prefix =
| name = Latham Valentine Stewart Blacker
| honorific_suffix =
| native_name =
| native_name_lang =
| image = Stewart Blacker in flying gear 1933.jpg
| image_size = 300
| alt =
| caption = Stewart Blacker in flying gear 1933
| birth_date = {{birth date|1887|10|18|df=y}}
| death_date = {{death date and age|1964|4|19|1887|10|18|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Grappenhall]], Cheshire
| death_place = [[Petersfield]], Hampshire
| placeofburial =
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| nickname =
| birth_name =
| allegiance = United Kingdom
| branch = British Indian Army
British Army
| serviceyears = 1907–1942
| rank = Lieutenant-Colonel
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| unit =
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| battles_label =
| awards = [[Order of the British Empire|OBE]]
| memorials =
| spouse = Lady Doris Peel
| relations = [[Harold Blacker]] (brother)
| laterwork =
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}}

Lieutenant-Colonel '''Latham Valentine Stewart Blacker''' [[Order of the British Empire|OBE]] (1 October 1887 – 19 April 1964) was a [[British Army]] officer and inventor of weapons; he invented the [[Blacker Bombard]], from which was developed the [[Hedgehog (weapon)|Hedgehog]] anti-submarine spigot-mortar – and laid the basis of the [[PIAT]] anti-tank weapon.

A descendant of [[Valentine Blacker]] (1778–1823), he was born in Cheshire to Major Latham Blacker of the [[Indian Army]]. He was educated at [[Cheltenham College]] and [[Bedford School]], before going to the [[Royal Military College, Sandhurst]]. After passing out from the college in 1907, he was commissioned into the Indian Army himself.

He served in [[Afghanistan]], [[Turkestan]], and Russia, earning several [[mentioned in dispatches|mentions in dispatches]]. He served with the [[69th Punjabis]], [[Corps of Guides (India)|Queen's Own Corps of Guides]], and [[57th Wilde's Rifles]].

He had learned to fly in 1911, receiving Certificate No. 121 from the [[Royal Aero Club]],<ref>{{citation |url=http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1964/1964%20-%201259.html |title=Lt Col L. V. S. Blacker |journal=Flight International |date=30 April 1964 |page=698}}</ref> and at the start of the First World War he was attached to the [[Royal Flying Corps]]. He was shot down and wounded in 1915, 1916 and 1917. He was appointed Officer of the [[Order of the British Empire]] in 1921 for his service in [[1921 Persian coup d'état|Persia]].

After the war he set himself up as a private developer of weapons funding his own research. He served on the [[Imperial General Staff]] between 1924 and 1928. He married Lady Doris Peel, the daughter of [[William Peel, 1st Earl Peel]] the former [[Secretary of State for India]]<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1404608/David-Blacker.html |title=Obituary: David Blacker |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |date=17 August 2002 }}</ref>

After retiring from the Indian Army as a [[major]] in 1932, he was commissioned into the [[2nd Cinque Ports Artillery Volunteers|58th (Home Counties) Field Brigade, Royal Artillery]] ([[Territorial Army (United Kingdom)|Territorial Army]]).

In 1933, he was with the [[Lucy, Lady Houston#Later events|Lady Houston]]-funded expedition to [[Houston–Mount Everest flight expedition|fly over Mount Everest]]. He organized the event with Colonel [[Percy T. Etherton]] and was the chief observer,<ref>{{citation |url=http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1964/1964%20-%201260.html |title=Lt Col L. V. S. Blacker |journal=Flight International |date=30 April 1964 |page=699}}</ref> writing a book ''First over Everest''.

[[Image:Blacker Bombard.jpg|thumb|Men of the [[Saxmundham]] [[Home Guard (United Kingdom)|Home Guard]] prepare to fire a Blacker Bombard during training with [[War Office]] ]]

At the start of the [[Second World War]] he was a [[lieutenant colonel]]. He took his weapons to his contacts at the War Office and was introduced to Major [[Millis Jefferis]] who engaged him and sent him to Coates Castle at [[Coates, West Sussex]], from where his Blacker Bombard, a spigot mortar was developed. It was adopted briefly by the British Army before it was redeployed for use with the [[Home Guard]].

Later one of his experimental guns based on the same principle was developed further by Jefferis and entered service as the [[PIAT]]. For his contributions to the Bombard, PIAT, the Hedgehog anti-submarine mortar and Petard demolition mortar{{efn|a 290mm high explosive warhead fires from a spigot mortar which was used on the AVRE variant of the [[Churchill tank]] }} he received £25,000 interim payment and a further £7,000 by the [[Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors]] (the body which determined the recompense to inventors whose ideas were used by the government during the war).<ref>{{cite book|author=Cohen Commission |date=1957 |title=Awards to Inventors – Use of Inventions and Designs by Government Departments |url=https://archive.org/details/op1265894-1001/page/n50/mode/1up |via=Archive.org |page=46 }}</ref>

Blacker retired from the Territorial Army in October 1942.

==Published works==
* [https://archive.org/details/onsecretpatrolin00blacuoft ''On Secret Patrol in High Asia'']. London: John Murray, 1922.
* ''First over Everest: The Houston – Mount Everest Expedition 1933'', Cherry Tree (Withy Grove Press), GB (1938), Fellowes, P. F. M. with L. V. Stewart Blacker and P. T. Etherton and the Marquess of Douglas and Clydesdale.

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}
* {{cite ODNB |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/101031907 |title=Stewart Blacker |author=Stuart Macrae |year=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/31907 }}
* Blacker, Barnaby ''The Adventures and Inventions of Stewart Blacker'' Pen and Sword.

==External links==
* [http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1964/1964%20-%201259.html Obituary in ''Flight'' magazine]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blacker, Stewart}}
[[Category:1887 births]]
[[Category:1964 deaths]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Cheshire]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:British Indian Army officers]]
[[Category:20th-century British inventors]]
[[Category:Corps of Guides (India) officers]]
[[Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:People educated at Bedford School]]
[[Category:People educated at Cheltenham College]]
[[Category:Royal Artillery officers]]
[[Category:Royal Flying Corps officers]]
[[Category:Weapon designers]]
[[Category:Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst]]
[[Category:Recipients of the MacGregor Medal]]

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Stewart Blacker