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Ian Blake's father was Laurence Mertling Blake (1901-96), born Laurence Mertling; Laurence sold pianos, before joining the RAF Equipment Branch in 1941. Ian's mother was Heather Potter (1897-1991), or Heather Tweeddale Potter, using her mother's maiden surname as a middle name. Ian was the middle of three children, and the elder of two sons.
Ian first came to The Leas in 1953, immediately after his National Service; after training as a cadet, he had been promoted to 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Signal Corps. In addition to teaching, he immediately joined Desmond Wareing as Assistant Scoutmaster, and was often called upon for lectures, performances, productions, Meccano Club and games assistance. In 1956 he took over as principal teacher of English, on the departure of FM Carmichael.
Prep school masters are often required to take classes in other subjects: Ian was at one stage taking a maths class, and had the rather clever idea of counting the number of spiders in a square foot (defined by a small wooden frame placed on the grass); boys were then asked to calculate how many spiders there might be in the whole of the school grounds. The headmasters soon relieved Ian of his maths class, after they received letters of panic from parents concerned about the local plague of spiders !
Ian took a short gap from the school in 1958, when for two terms he was an Instructor at the Outward Bound Mountain School in Eskdale - not the Scottish Eskdale, but the one in the English Lakes, E of Ravenglass, W of Coniston Water.
Ian left The Leas for good in July 1960. His next port of call was Trinity College, Dublin, where he spent 4 years gaining a BA in General Studies; and taking a large part in college life, involved in drama and debates.
After a couple of years working in the field for the British School of Archaeology, Jerusalem, Ian researched (1965-68) at Balliol College, Oxford, gaining a DPhil in Archaeology.
From September 1968 until his retirement in 1994, Ian taught at Charterhouse, also serving as housemaster (1976-91) of Robinites.
Retirement was not a cessation of activity: Ian continued to write and to lecture for many years, based in his remote cottage in Wester Ross; and he kept up friendships with former masters and pupils of The Leas.