Lieutenant-Colonel Valentine Blacker (19 October 1778 – 4 February 1826) was an officer in the Honourable East India Company's

Madras Army The Madras Army was the army of the Presidency of Madras, one of the three presidencies of British India within the British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations manda ...

, and later Surveyor General of India.

Life and career

Blacker was born in

Armagh Armagh ( ; , , " Macha's height") is a city and the county town of County Armagh, in Northern Ireland, as well as a civil parish. It is the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland – the seat of the Archbishops of Armagh, the Primates of All ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

where his family has an ancestral home in the barony of

Oneilland East Oneilland East (, the name of an ancient Gaelic district) is a barony in the north-east of County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It is also called Clanbrasil (from ''Clann Bhreasail'', "offspring of Breasal"). It lies in the north-east corner of th ...

. He obtained a commission in the Madras Cavalry in 1798, was made a cornet in 1799, and aide-de-camp to a Colonel

Stevenson Stevenson is an English language patronymic surname meaning "son of Steven". Its first historical record is from pre-10th-century England. Another origin of the name is as a toponymic surname related to the place Stevenstone in Devon, England. The ...

in the

Wayanad district Wayanad () is a district in the north-east of the Indian state of Kerala, with its administrative headquarters at the municipality of Kalpetta. It is the only plateau in Kerala. The Wayanad Plateau forms a continuation of the Mysore Plateau, ...

in 1800, and quartermaster-general in 1810. He served in

Deccan The Deccan is a plateau extending over an area of and occupies the majority of the Indian peninsula. It stretches from the Satpura and Vindhya Ranges in the north to the northern fringes of Tamil Nadu in the south. It is bound by the mount ...

, 1817, and was promoted to lieutenant colonel. His son,

Maxwell Maxwell may refer to: People * Maxwell (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name ** James Clerk Maxwell, mathematician and physicist * Justice Maxwell (disambiguation) * Maxwell baronets, in the Baronetage of N ...

, was born in June 1822. Blacker took over from John Hodgson as Surveyor General of India in 1823. In this capacity he made substantial contributions to the ongoing Trigonometrical Survey of India. He was stationed in

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

from 1823 until his death there from a

fever Fever or pyrexia in humans is a symptom of an anti-infection defense mechanism that appears with Human body temperature, body temperature exceeding the normal range caused by an increase in the body's temperature Human body temperature#Fever, s ...

in 1826. He was buried in South Park Street Cemetery in Calcutta. Andrew Waugh said that "Blacker, with the exception of Colonel George Everest, was the ablest and most scientific man that ever presided over this expensive department".

Writings

Blacker and his relative William Blacker were both lieutenant colonels and published authors. Because some of the work was published pseudonymously, the two are sometimes confused or conflated in texts. His correspondence with his father concerning military and political news, as well as his observations about Indian life and culture, was published in 1798. Blacker published a history of the

Third Anglo-Maratha War The Third Anglo-Maratha War (1817–1819) was the final and decisive conflict between the British East India Company and the Maratha Empire, Maratha Confederacy in India. The war left the Company in control of most of India. It began with an in ...

, including discussion of the

Battle of Khadki The Battle of Khadki, also known as or the Battle of Ganeshkhind and Battle of Kirkee, took place at modern day Khadki, India, on 5 November 1817 between the forces of the British East India Company and the Maratha Confederacy under the leader ...

, in 1821.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blacker, Valentine British East India Company Army officers Surveyors General of India 1778 births 1826 deaths Military personnel from County Armagh Companions of the Order of the Bath British surveyors