Wing Commander Minden Blake - The Inventor

[Dave Homewood]

I came across this snippet in the Press newspaper dated the 13th of June 1945.

AIRMAN REPORTED SAFE

DISTINGUISHED CAREER

Wing Commander M. V. Blake, D.S.O., D.F.C., who has been a prisoner of war in Germany for the last two years and a half, has now been reported safe and well in the United Kingdom. Wing Commander Blake, who is a son of the late Mr C. M. Blake, and of Mrs E. D. Blake, 16 Ward street, Christchurch, is a New Zealand air ace with a score of nine and a half enemy aircraft to his credit. He was decorated in the Battle of Britain, He was shot down over Dieppe, and was taken prisoner at this time. While a prisoner of war he spent a great deal of time working on two inventions for aircraft engines. One of his first missions in England will be to test out their practicability. Two of his inventions were accepted by the Air Ministry when war broke out. Wing Commander Blake, who was twice nominated as a Rhodes Scholar, left New Zealand in 1936 for England, to enter the Royal Air Force Training School under a New Zealand Government scholarship, which he gained as a graduate from Canterbury University College.

So does anyone know what the inventions were he came up with that had been accepted at the outbreak of war? And what were the two he was working on as a POW?

His Wikipedia page sates, "In civilian life, he was a prolific inventor and developed a golfing aid that was a commercial success."

and "Blake developed technology for grading eggs."

and in 1942, "Blake continued on operations for the next several months, leading his wing on long-range patrols as far as Brest but during this time was also involved in the development of a gyroscopic gunsight for fighters. This combined a conventional deflector gunsight with aspects of a bombsight."

He sounds like a very clever and fascinating man.

[errolmartyn]

Ken Wynn's A Clasp for 'The Few' has a five page entry about him.
Errol

[Dave Homewood]

I really need to find a copy of that book.

[errolmartyn]

Apr 14, 2021 23:06:20 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

I really need to find a copy of that book.

Pre-loved copies available via bookfinder.com ranging in price from a modest NZ$46, including p&p, to a mere NZ$830!
Errol

[Dave Homewood]

This is a fascinating obituary of Minden Blake from The Press dated 2 December 1981:

Wing Comm. M. V. Blake

Wing Commander Minden Blake, a New Zealander who won fame as an ace fighter pilot during World War II — he was the first Spitfire pilot to survive a ditching — has died, in Surrey, England. He was 69.

Wing Commander Blake was born in Wellington, but was educated in Christchurch. His early days were spent inventing irrigation schemes for his parent’s garden. This interest in inventing continued through to his days at the University of Canterbury, where he developed such inventions as an egg grater.

Wing Commander Blake graduated master of science from Canterbury, and also became New Zealand pole vault champion. After his graduation he took up a scholarsnip to travel to Britain to learn to fly, with the Royal Air Force. As his training drew to a close war broke out.

Wing Commander Blake, who won the D.S.O. and the D.F.C., was shot down four times, and managed to survive a first ditching in the English Channel by dipping one wing into the water first, and so cartwheeling before settling. Normally pilots had ditched straight into the water and had died because of the air-intake vent instantly catching in the water like an anchor, so knocking out the pilot.

Wing Commander Blake when shot down a second time ditched with five pieces of shattered windscreen in the eyes. He was picked up by the enemy. He was taken by train from Paris to Germany, during which journey he managed to escape but chose the wrong spot to leave the train, as when he jumped clear he broke a hand.

Virtually blind, Wing Commander Blake travelled about France before his feeble eyesight let him down and he was recaptured. The rest of the war he spent in a German prisoner-of-war camp, where he studied engineering and designed a rotary engine, and also took up “golf” by using a broom.

After the war he married a Christchurch woman, Molly Seldon, and became a golfing champion, inventor, and bomber commander. In 1953 he went to Norway as a British representative of N.A.T.O. He won the Norwegian golf championship during his stay.

During the 1960s, he invented the “Swingrite” practice club. The club became widely used, as it told the golfer how perfect his swing was by a series of clicks. Wing Commander Blake also wrote a book on golf that sold widely, and a book on politics. He is survived by his wife and two daughters.