Those of us who knew him were especially saddened to learn of the tragically premature death of Harold Blakemore, the University of London’s emeritus reader of history and secretary of its Institute of Latin American Studies. One of three sons born to a Yorkshire miner, and raised during the Great Depression and World War II, Harold had to endure enormous privation. A graduate of a local grammar school, he received a scholarship to the University of London. Life in postwar England was austere, but Harold, partially supported by a brother’s economic help, survived: he earned such high marks that the university awarded him a fellowship for graduate study. In 1960, after three years as staff tutor in history, Harold served as education officer at the university’s School of Oriental and African Studies. Five years later, he became the first secretary of the Institute of Latin American Studies, a post he held until he retired in 1987.
Ostensibly an administrator, Harold served on many academic committees, both in England and on the Continent, as a reader in Latin American history as well as an external reviewer for numerous British doctoral dissertations. In addition, he belonged to such organizations as the Conference on Latin American History, the Society for Latin American Studies, and the Anglo-Chilean Society. As a tribute to his organizational skills and energy, in 1982 the International Congress of Americanists elected Harold its president. He also lectured to private organizations; government agencies, including the Foreign Office and the BBC; and many universities in Europe, the United States, and Chile.
Although saddled with enormous administrative responsibilities, including serving as a union representative, Harold published extensively. He wrote a chapter on Chile in a work which he edited with Clifford Smith, Latin America: Geographical Perspectives. In addition to editing the University of London’s prestigious Journal of Latin American Studies, an arduous task he undertook for almost twenty years, Harold co-edited the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Chile remained a focus of Harold’s scholarly efforts. He wrote numerous articles on that nation, including an essay which recently appeared in the Cambridge History of Latin America. He edited a bibliography on Chile, published by Clio Press. His most notable achievement was British Nitrates and Chilean Politics, 1886–1896: Balmaceda and North, a revisionist work which remains a classic study of the period. In 1990, he completed yet another monograph—From the Pacific to La Paz: The Antofagasta and Bolivia Railway Company, 1888—1988. At his death Harold was revising the encyclopedia and writing a general history of Chile as well as some lectures on the 1891 revolution, which he was to have delivered to an international symposium in Santiago.
Harold truly cared for Chile. And happily, Chile responded more generously to Harold than did his own government or academic institution. The Chilean Academy of History elected him a corresponding member, and Santiago’s Catholic University made him an honorary member of its Faculty of Philosophy, History, and Letters. Last year, the Chilean government awarded him the Order of Merit Bernardo O’Higgins. Harold cherished these honors as he did his friendships in that nation so far from his native Yorkshire.
Harold took pride in his family—his wife, Miriam; a son, Christopher; and a daughter, Alison—and his friends. Outspoken, which the less tolerant never forgot or forgave, Harold was a man who befriended people regardless of their status, profession, or politics. He derived as much pleasure from the fact that the janitor at the University of London remembered him as he did from his relationships with the powerful of London’s City. He loved scholarship, music, and life. While plagued with poor health, he nonetheless gave his time and energy to the academic community and to the public, serving on the board of the Mid-Counties Autistic Society as well as participating in various municipal events in Barnet, where he lived. Since to have known Harold was a privilege, his passing has been very painful for us.
