Background
His father sent him to the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in 1871.
His father sent him to the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in 1871.
University of Arkansas. United States Military Academy.
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.
Soon after he received appointment to the United States. 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 United States. Cavalry stationed in Arizona. 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 gold prospector.
While in South Africa he became deeply involved in the Second, 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. John"s mother Sinclair T. Chitty married his father Thomas Kincaid Blake Junior. 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.
He was found dead in his home in Harlem, New York City of gas asphyxiation on January 24, 1907. He had previously been tending a sick friend for 3 days.
Some sources said the death was accidental, while others called it suicide.
He is buried at West Point, New New York
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.
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.