CleanupBot II: Removed empty portal template using script

2023-08-13T22:40:30Z

Removed empty portal template using script

← Older revision		Revision as of 04:10, 14 August 2023
Line 26:		Line 26:

	==References==		==References==
	~~{{Portal\|Cornwall}}~~
	{{Reflist}}		{{Reflist}}

Bot: robot: Create/update articles. If there is a mistake please report on my talk page.

2022-04-14T08:38:01Z

robot: Create/update articles. If there is a mistake please report on my talk page.

New page

{{Short description|British Army officer and animal breeder (1913–2011)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
'''Robert Lifford Valentine ffrench Blake''' (3 March 1913 – 11 March 2011) was a lieutenant-colonel in the [[British Army]], cattle and horse breeder, and author.

==Biography==
===Early life===
Robert Lifford Valentine ffrench Blake was born on 3 March 1913 in [[Rawalpindi]], [[British India|India]].<ref name="thepeerage">[http://www.thepeerage.com/p27620.htm The Peerage: Lt.-Col. Robert Lifford Valentine ffrench Blake]</ref><ref name="telegraph">[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/military-obituaries/army-obituaries/8409776/Lt-Col-Val-ffrench-Blake.html Lt-Col Val ffrench Blake], ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'', 27 March 2011</ref><ref name="thetimes">[http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/obituaries/article2947345.ece Lieutenant-Colonel Val ffrench-Blake], ''[[The Times]]'', 16 March 2011</ref> He was a descendant of the [[Tribes of Galway]]. His father was Major St. John Lucius O'Brien Acheson ffrench Blake (1889–1917), who was killed at the [[First Battle of Gaza]], and his mother, Doris Kathleen Tweedie.<ref name="thepeerage"/><ref name="telegraph"/> He went to [[Eton College]], a boarding-school in [[Eton, Berkshire]], where he was an [[Oppidan Scholar]], and graduated from the [[Royal Military College, Sandhurst]].<ref name="thepeerage"/><ref name="telegraph"/>

===Military career===
During the [[Second World War]], he served with the [[17th/21st Lancers]] in [[India]] and [[North Africa]].<ref name="telegraph"/> However, after he was shot in the neck and arms by a sniper in November 1942, he was sent back to England to heal.<ref name="telegraph"/> He then worked at RAC Tactical School in [[Oxford]] and studied at the [[Staff College, Camberley]].<ref name="telegraph"/> At the age of thirty-two, he was appointed assistant adjutant and quartermaster general (AA&QMG) to the [[6th Armoured Division (United Kingdom)|6th Armoured Division]].<ref name="telegraph"/> He was then posted to the newly established [[Royal Military Academy Sandhurst]], where he served as Chief Instructor of Old College and co-wrote the Military Syllabus for an 18-month course.<ref name="telegraph"/><ref name="thetimes"/> Meanwhile, he became a Companion of the [[Distinguished Service Order]] in 1945.<ref name="thepeerage"/> However, in 1949, he retired from the British Army as Lieutenant-Colonel.<ref name="thepeerage"/><ref name="telegraph"/>

===Country life===
Later, he moved to a farm in [[Cornwall]], where he raised [[Ayrshire cattle]].<ref name="telegraph"/> After being introduced to dressage by [[Poland|Polish]] cavalryman Captain [[Stefan Skupinski]], he bred horses to sell them for eventing, showjumping and dressage.<ref name="telegraph"/> He also wrote several books, including: one about dressage, another one about the [[Crimean War]], and a memoir. He taught children how to shoot woodcock, [[snipe]] or pheasant.<ref name="telegraph"/> He also became a professional painting restorer, copying [[Old Master]].<ref name="telegraph"/>

In 2010, he asked his publisher to give him the royalties he was overdue from the sales of his 1972 book ''Dressage for Beginners'' in the United States.<ref name="horseandhound">Charlotte White, [http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/97-year-old-equestrian-authors-fight-for-book-royalties/ 97-year-old equestrian author’s fight for book royalties], ''[[Horse & Hound]]'', 6 July 2010</ref>

===Personal life===
He married Grania Bryde Curran. They had two sons: Neil St. John ffrench Blake (born 1940) and Anthony O'Brien ffrench Blake (born 1942).<ref name="thepeerage"/> They resided at Midgham Park Farm in [[Woolhampton]], [[Berkshire]].<ref name="thepeerage"/> He spent his last years in a nursing home in [[Nether Wallop]], [[Hampshire]].<ref name="horseandhound"/>

==Bibliography==
*''Dressage for Beginners'' (Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1972).
*''The Early Training of the Horse'' (Seeley, 1978).
*''Elementary Dressage'' (Frederick Warne Publishers, 1984).
*''The Crimean War'' (Barnsley, South Yorkshire: Pen and Sword Books, 2006).
*''Mainstay of the Altos: A Twentieth Century Life'' (London: Bene Factum Publishing, 2011).

==References==
{{Portal|Cornwall}}
{{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:ffrench Blake, Robert Lifford Valentine}}
[[Category:1913 births]]
[[Category:2011 deaths]]
[[Category:Farmers from Cornwall]]
[[Category:People educated at Eton College]]
[[Category:Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst]]
[[Category:Academics of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst]]
[[Category:Graduates of the Staff College, Camberley]]
[[Category:17th/21st Lancers officers]]
[[Category:English racehorse owners and breeders]]
[[Category:Dressage trainers]]
[[Category:Writers on horsemanship]]
[[Category:Companions of the Distinguished Service Order]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:British people in colonial India]]
[[Category:Military personnel of British India]]

Val ffrench Blake - Revision history

CleanupBot II: Removed empty portal template using script

Bot: robot: Create/update articles. If there is a mistake please report on my talk page.