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{{Infobox military person
|honorific_prefix =
|name = Valentine Blacker
|honorific_suffix =
|image = Valentine Blacker.jpg
|image_upright =
|alt =
|caption =
|native_name =
|native_name_lang =
|birth_name =
|other_name =
|nickname =
|birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1778|10|19}}
|birth_place = [[Armagh]], [[Kingdom of Ireland]]
|death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1826|2|4|1778|10|19}}
|death_place = Calcutta, [[British Raj|British India]] (now [[Kolkata]])
|placeofburial = [[South Park Street Cemetery]]
|placeofburial_label =
|placeofburial_coordinates =
|allegiance = [[East India Company]]
|branch = Army
|branch_label = Branch
|serviceyears =
|serviceyears_label =
|rank = Lieutenant Colonel
|rank_label =
|servicenumber =
|unit = [[8th Light Cavalry|Madras Cavalry]]
|commands =
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}}
'''Valentine Blacker''' [[Order of the Bath|CB]] (19 October 1778<ref name="burke">Burke, John (1835). ''A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland, Enjoying Territorial Possessions Or High Official Rank, Vol. II.'' Publisher: R. Bentley for Henry Colburn</ref> – 4 February 1826<ref name="burke1">Holmes and Co. (Calcutta), ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=T-HwSiLns14C&pg=128#v=onepage&q&f=false The Bengal Obituary]: Or, a Record to Perpetuate the Memory of Departed Worth: Being a Compilation of Tablets and Monumental Inscriptions from Various Parts of the Bengal and Agra Presidencies, to which is added Biographical Sketches and Memoirs of Such as have Pre-Eminently Distinguished Themselves in the History of British India, Since the Formation of the European Settlement to the Present Time'', London: 1851, W. Thacker, pp. 208–9. Some sources give 1823 or 1827, e.g. ''Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, Volume 1'' (1847). His grave marker gives 4 February 1826</ref>), was a lieutenant colonel in the [[East India Company|Honourable East India Company]] and later [[Surveyor General of India]].

==Life and career==

Blacker was born in [[Armagh]], [[Northern Ireland]] where his family has an ancestral home in the barony of [[Oneilland East]]. He obtained a commission in the [[8th Light Cavalry|Madras Cavalry]] in 1798, was made a cornet in 1799, and aide-de-camp to a Colonel Stevenson in the [[Wayanad district]] in 1800, and quartermaster-general in 1810. He served in [[Deccan Plateau|Deccan]], 1817, and was promoted to lieutenant-colonel. His son, [[Maxwell Blacker|Maxwell]], was born in June 1822.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Eton College Register |date=1903 |publisher=Spottiswoode & Co. Ltd. |page=[https://archive.org/details/etonregister03collgoog/page/n33 15] |url=https://archive.org/details/etonregister03collgoog |language=en}}</ref>

Blacker took over from John Hodgson as [[Surveyor General of India]] in 1823. In this capacity he made substantial contributions to the ongoing [[Trigonometrical Survey of India]]. He was stationed in [[Calcutta]] from 1823 until his death there from a [[fever]] in 1826. He was buried in [[South Park Street Cemetery]] in Calcutta.<ref>[[Clements Markham|Clements Robert Markham]], ''A Memoir on the Indian Surveys'' (1878), p. 96.</ref> [[Andrew Scott Waugh|Andrew Waugh]] said of him that "Blacker, with the exception of [[George Everest|Col Everest]], was the ablest and most scientific man that ever presided over this expensive department".<ref>J. R. Smith, ''Everest: The Man and the Mountain'' (1999), p. 226.</ref>

===Writings===
Blacker and his relative [[William Blacker]] were both [[lieutenant-colonels]], and both were published authors. Because some of the work was published [[pseudonymously]], the two are sometimes confused or conflated in texts.

His correspondence with his father concerning military and political news, as well as his observations about Indian life and culture, was published in 1798.<ref name="b;lacker1798">Blacker, Valentine (1798). ''Letter Book''.</ref>

Blacker published a history of [[History of Maharashtra#The British|Maharashtra War]], including discussion of the [[Battle of Khadki]], in 1821.<ref name="blacker">Blacker, Valentine (1821). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=E2JNAAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false Memoirs of the operations of the British Army in India during the Mahratta war of 1817, 1818 and 1819.]'' Black, Kingsbury, Parbury, and Allen, 1821</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}
{{Commons category|Valentine Blacker}}
{{Wikiquote}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blacker, Valentine}}
[[Category:British East India Company Army officers]]
[[Category:Surveyors General of India]]
[[Category:1778 births]]
[[Category:1826 deaths]]
[[Category:People from County Armagh]]
[[Category:Companions of the Order of the Bath]]
[[Category:British surveyors]]

Valentine Blacker - Revision history

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