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Long retired, he died in 1983.
Blain was 175 centimetres (5 feet 9 inches) tall, with brown eyes, a dark complexion and dark brown hair.
Born a Methodist, he later became an Anglican. Blain Street in Tennant Creek is named for him.
J Rydon, A Biographical Register of the Commonwealth Parliament 1901–1972, 1975; ‘Viator’, ‘A M Blain; Northern Territory Representative’,
Cummins and Campbell’s Monthly Magazine, August 1935, Blain papers, Northern Territory University Library.
MURRAY MAYNARD, Vol 1.BLAKE, DAVID VALENTINE JARDINE (1887–1965), army officer, was born on 10 November 1887 at Harris
Park in Parramatta, New South Wales, the son of William Blake of Antigua. He was educated at the Marist Brothers
College in Parramatta, and in December 1904 joined Saint George’s English Rifle Regiment, Citizens Military
Forces (CMF), as a Second Lieutenant. He reached the rank of Captain in January 1907, but four years later joined
the Permanent Military Forces (PMF) as a Lieutenant on the Administration and Instructional Staff. After attending
a course in musketry in 1912, Blake tried his hand at teaching, as an instructor at Albury School, from September
1912 until March the next year. In August 1914 Blake achieved the rank of Temporary Captain with Administration
and Instructional Staff, and was appointed Brigade Major, 7th Brigade Area. This position carried through until
January 1916. At that point, with the First World War well under way, he joined the Australian Imperial Force
and was posted to No 1 Squadron Australian Flying Corps (AFC), as a flight commander. On 16 March 1916,
Blake embarked for overseas and, nine months later, took command of the No 3 Squadron of the AFC posted in
France. Promoted to Major in December 1916 Blake remained in control of No 3 Squadron until March 1918,
when he spent three weeks in the role of temporary commander of 2 Wing, Royal Flying Corps. In September of
the same year he spent a further three weeks as temporary commander of 15 Wing of the Royal Air Force.
In late October 1918, after completing his service with No 3 Squadron, Blake took up a position with
No 7 Squadron, a training squadron of the AFC. After this position, there came a six-week post as AFC representative
at the Repatriation and Demobilisation Depot. He then returned to the instructional field, as a commander at the
AFC Training Depot in Wendover. This position was maintained for seven months until July 1919. One month
later, Blake’s AIF appointment was terminated and he returned to the PMF.
During the 1920s Blake held a variety of staff posts with the rank of Major. In April 1929 he took on a different
role, as aide-de-camp to the governor of South Australia. In April 1932, during his tenure of this position, he was
promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel and continued to serve as a staff officer of 4th Military District. Blake relinquished
the post of aide-de-camp in July 1933, but maintained his position with 4th Military District until December 1934.
Blake then became General Staff Officer, 4th Division, and while serving that position was promoted to Brevet
Colonel, Staff Corps. Other Staff posts followed and, from November 1938 to December 1941, a position as
aide-de-camp to the governor-general.
Promoted to Brigadier in October 1939, Blake was appointed, on 1 September 1941, to command of the
7th Military District with headquarters at Darwin. His predecessor, Brigadier W A B Steele had struggled against
official apathy in attempting to build an effective defence force in the north. Blake seems at first to have been
unconvinced of the Japanese threat; he gave little support to civil defence or emergency evacuation plans and,
believing his forces too meagre for defence in depth of the Northern Territory, made little attempt to plan for it.
He was, like his predecessor, ill served by his Canberra masters, though they did award him the temporary rank of
Major-General on 1 January 1942.
The Administrator, C L A Abbott, Blake and the other services commanders all shared with Australian
governments of the previous twenty years the blame for the devastating Japanese raids of 19 February 1942 and
the disorganisation that followed. Blake, the only man with the power to take full control of post-raid Darwin,
hesitated to do so. ‘[I] have no instructions and little warrant or authority for many of my decisions, other than that
of necessity,’ he wrote to the Chief of the General Staff on 22 February. Most civilians had departed and Darwin
had been thoroughly looted before the army took decisive control of the area a few days later; nor was civilian
or military morale improved by the action of 7th Military District staff, who left Larrakeyah Barracks early on
20 February, lurked in the bush all day for fear of air raids and returned ‘rather shamefacedly’ the same night.
Two days later Blake moved his staff to temporary quarters 60 kilometres south of Darwin, leaving the navy,
the Royal Australian Air Force base staff and the remaining civilians, as they saw it, in the front line.
Pre-war political prevarication and lack of direction from higher authority had more to do with the dismal
post-raid picture than did Blake; yet one of his officers said of him that ‘he had no ideas and never visited the
troops’ which, though unkind, held a germ of truth—Blake had not been an inspiring commander. On 6 April 1942
Major-General Edmund Herring superseded him. From that date until 11 October 1942 he commanded
the Northern Territory Lines of Communication Area, receiving confirmation of his rank as Major-General in
September. Thereafter he never held another active appointment and retired on 11 November 1947. He died on
6 March 1965 in Sydney, survived by his wife Mildred (nee Tunks) whom he married in 1913. The couple had no
children.
Blake did well in the First World War, winning a (US) Distinguished Service Medal and a Mention in Dispatches.
He might have served well, too, during the Second World War in positions other than the 7th Military District
command—or even in that post, had he been given adequate political and military support. He was not; and his
military career came to a premature end.