John Blake (soldier)

John Young Filmore Blake was born October 6, 1856, in Bolivar, Missouri, United States, and died January 24, 1907, in New York City. An Irish-American soldier, freedom fighter, and lecturer, he was an ardent advocate of resistance to British imperialism.

After his birth, his family soon moved to Denton County Texas. There he grew to cattle ranching and learned to ride horses. His father sent him to the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in 1871. Soon after he received appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1876. Upon graduating West Point in June 1880, John Y.F. Blake began his military career, assigned as 2nd Lieutenant to the 6th U.S. Cavalry stationed in Arizona. He served under General Willcox, General Crook, and General Miles during the Apache wars.He was known as a fearless and magnetic leader at one point rustling an Apache pony herd. Resigning from the military in 1889, John Y. F. Blake moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan to become a businessman, as his wife and family wanted him to settle down. After about 5 years he soon found out that "'the tricks of the trade', were too deep for me" and giving into his desire for adventure, he headed to South Africa as a gold prospector.

While in South Africa he became deeply involved in the Second Boer War, leading foreign volunteers assisting the Boer republics in their resistance to British annexation. He returned to the United States after the war to a hero's welcome and the lecture circuit. He subsequently published a memoir of his African experience, A West Pointer With The Boers. Blake's memoir is conceived as a highly critical expose of the motives and actions of Great Britain, particularly in its support of Cecil Rhodes. He also lingers on the British maltreatment of black Africans and Afrikaners alike, and the honor and decency of Boer partisans in defending their liberty and families.

John's mother Sinclair T. Chitty married his father Thomas Kincaid Blake Jr. at the age of 15.

In 1885 John married Katherine Euphrasia Aldrich in Grand Rapids while still in the service. Together they lived in the officers' quarters at Fort Leavenworth, where John's first son Aldrich Blake was born on November 6, 1885. In 1888 Katherine, being pregnant with John's second son, persuaded him to resign from the military and return to Grand Rapids. He agreed, and on September 19, 1889 Ledyard Blake was born.

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