John Blake passes away

[Finningley Boy]

Ladies & Gentlemen,

I've just read on UKAR that the former Farnborough and Biggin Hill Air Show Commentator, John Blake has passed away.

R.I.P.John

[Tiger_mate]

Is he the Aviation Artist of the same name?

AL1: Found out by other means that it is. One of the best UK aviation artists and a founder member and Fellow of GAvA. Sad news.

RIP

[Sir George Cayley]

Listened to his voice many many times. I'm sure there will be loads of reminiscences here about some of his best.

There will not be another like him.

SGC

[John Farley]

Sad news. John was a consummate aviation professional and bloody nice with it. On one occasion I was even fortunate enough to fly with him in G-VTOL. Since the 70s we have exchanged Christmas cards and many of his had me in stitches over his drawings. In many ways his passing is yet another event that marks the end of a remarkable period in aviation history when aeroplanes and flying were something special. John had a different style to Raymond Baxter but both were world class at what they did.

JF

[scotbill]

Sad news indeed. Enthusiast, artist, wit - his smooth commentary featured at so many air displays through the decades.

John at a Tiger Club reunion in November 2006

[thing]

In many ways his passing is yet another event that marks the end of a remarkable period in aviation history when aeroplanes and flying were something special.

Excellently put John, we'll never see the like of those days again. I'm just glad I was around at the tail end of that period.

[soddim]

Remember a wet afternoon at the Southend airshow in the late 80's waiting in the dry for a break in the weather and listening to his observations on the package tour crowd boarding for a Costa holiday. Agree - we should control passport issue!

[Finningley Boy]

I recall he once said at Biggin Hill during commentary that he would liked to have seen an Aerobatics Team of Harriers!

FB

[treadigraph]

Remember his commentaries at Biggin Hill best, them was the days... interesting aeroplanes and a casually expert voice telling you what was going on with plenty of humour and anecdote - and a reverential silence too when occasion demanded.

I'm not familar with his paintings, but have seen plenty of great cartoons and his "pomes"!

Thanks John.

[mmitch]

Remember an anecdote while commentating on a Ant 2 display. The first time he flew in one he looked back from the cockpit at its cargo of sheep!
When I heard his voice open the commentary at an airshow it brought a smile with it.
mmitch.

[PPRuNe Pop]

I am so sorry to hear of John's passing. He was a brilliant commentator and a lovely guy. I enjoyed his company many times and it was always a laugh. I recall one King's Cup from White Waltham to Swansea, when over Porthcawl I was flipped in a RF4 and cracked the hood - with my head!!! Later at a function I organised at the Royal Lancaster the menu was passed to me from John who had depicted the incident inside with one of his drawings. I have it still. We all have to go sometime but when folk like John go, you know that Heaven is going to be better for his renowned presence.

RIP, John. I for one will never forget you.

[airsound]

As a fellow commentator, I always had the greatest respect for John. It was huge fun working with him - although sometimes, shall we say, challenging.....

If you hadn't met him, you might not know that he had only one hand, after an accident some years ago I think. But what might have been seen as a disability by some people, was often used to good effect by John.

When he was driving his ancient and beloved Landrover, and some klutz on the road irritated him, he could make some extremely graphic gestures with his stump. And if he were kept waiting in a restaurant, he could occasionally be seen gnawing on it with that kind of villainous leer that only someone with the deepest twinkle could get away with.

We shall miss him, a lot. He was a one-off.

airsound

[John Farley]

G-VTOL 1978

[Goprdon]

It was rumoured that he stirred a bowl of punch with that short arm of his; only a rumour.

[Stratton747]

John Blake CV

John Blake, Guild of Aviation Artist, Raconteur, Historianand Airshow Commentator

John Blake began his adult life at about the same time asthe Second World War also started. He originally wished to enter theRoyal Air Force (his Father having been in the Royal Flying corps), but wasturned down as at that point there were no vacancies!! He thereforejoined the Irish Guards as a subaltern and hence commenced his own type of war,causing chaos, blowing up bridges and for a short time owning a ME109, which hesubsequently blew up, with spectacular results, in case the original owner re-appeared. He was heavily involved with the ‘Micks’ (Irish Guards) inOperation Market Garden after his landing in Normandy on the beaches. John had an individual style of service life. On entering Brussels thelocal community were found to be ‘acquiring’ back, from the recently departedGermans, supplies from the Palais de Justice. Order had to be maintainedand John, as part of the Regimental Pioneer Platoon(things that go bang) put up notice to say that the Palais was mined andall should keep clear. It was not until several months later, when he wasback in England recovering from being hit by an unfriendly German shell, justoutside Arnhem, and attending a refresher course about defusing bombs that heremembered that he had forgotten to take the sign down. His memory wasjogged by the instructor complaining about ‘so many false ‘beware of the mines’signs’. It was while completing his recovery that he, and his sergeant,where on a range checking the results of hand grenades on different types ofrock that his Sergeant dropped a live grenade. John, without muchthought, picked the grenade up to get rid of it and it exploded taking hisright hand with it, and causing multiple injuries to the rest of him.

After the war, and patched up as well as could be done, heattended the Glasgow School of Art where, having to change hands, he trained as an artist. A skill he was to use until very recently and which has madehim a Fellow of the Guild of Aviation artists and a former Chairman of the saidGuild. He found employment with the Royal Aero Club of the United Kingdomas their librarian. This suited him down to the ground, as his other loveis Naval, Army and Air Force history. He had the run of the Library atthe Royale Aeronautical Society and was paid to do this. It was duringthis time he was asked to commentate at a little airshow. This was thestart of a long and distinguished career as the leading airshow commentatorthis country has ‘heard’. Airshows up and down the country, in thesixties, seventies, eighties and into the nineties had the good fortune to havesuch a historian and raconteur entreating their audience with such knowledgeand skill. There will never be a replacement as a commentator for John,and I write that as his successor as Chief Commentator at Farnborough. Mycommentating colleagues at airshows have a lot to thank John for as he set thebar and standard that we try to emanate.

John is a founder member of the Tiger Club, but due to his loss of a hand (which he never thought of as any type of disability) was notable to get his Private Pilots Licence until the CAA relaxed their rules andlooked at individual cases on their own merit. John became a stalwart ofthe British Aerobatic Association and an International Aerobatic Judge and wasthe Contest Director for the World Aerobatic Championships held in Hullavingtonin 1970.

The stories surrounding John from falling down a nunnery staircase with an armed Rocket Propelled Grenade (this one did not go off), tomeeting aviation greats like Uri Gagarin, to towing the Admiral commanding theRoyal Yacht Britannia across the forecourt at Buckingham Palace are all true.

Stratton Richey

[airsound]

Thanks Strat. Welcome to PPRuNe. Sad way to start.

Any news of the funeral, or memorial event?

airsound

[secretprojects]

I was lucky enough to sit next to him on the bus to the Farnborough airshow a few years ago. I didn't know who he was but we had a good natter about aircraft and he told me a few stories of airshows past. Nice old guy.

[spacegrand]

I was very lucky to have known John, and his mum, some 40 odd years ago. What a wonderful character, so full of fun! I am sure I am only one of many who benefitted from, as Stratton Richey wrote " a very generous individual who always put himself out to help others". He gave me great encouragement to become a pilot and realise a dream when medically it seemed I would never have a chance. To date 23,000 hrs the majority in the left seat of heavy jets.

Thank you John. RIP. I hope there are flowers enough in heaven.

[Nigel Macknight]

Remember John Blake

Thirty-nine years ago today, John was Best Man at my wedding in Nottingham. It was a white wedding, inasmuch as it was snowing that day. I had had the pleasure of sharing commentating duties at a two-event back in 1973, the Cranfield Air Pageant, but our friendship really began in 1978, when we met again at the International Air Racing and Aerobatic Championships at Thruxton. John was commentating, while I was handling the press and PR aspects of the event.
John was, as many have said on here, wonderful company. I relied on him when I wanted to stay in the background and needed someone who was happy to be the centre of attention and keep everyone entertained. His knowledge of aviation, and air-racing in particular, simply staggered me. He was a through-and-through aviation enthusiast who just happened to be an aviation professional as well.
My career as an author and editor took me from aviation into rocketry and then on into other pastures, and John and I eventually lost contact. But on many occasions, and particularly on the anniversary of my wedding, I remember him with great admiration and affection, and a broad smile on my face.

[POBJOY]

Classic Blake

Biggin Hill Air Fair 1965 . Williams is flicking the new Tiger Club Stampe at typical Williams height (or lack of it)

Blake on PA; 'And Neil is taking the Stampe behind the Hangar' Flick Spin CRUMP, 'and it looks like he is leaving it there' !!!! Says it all.