Ernley Blackwell

Sir Ernley Robertson Hay Blackwell KCB (6 June 1868 – 21 September 1941) was a British lawyer and career civil servant. As chief legal advisor to the Cabinet, Blackwell was involved in the prosecution of Roger Casement, and authorised the circulation of his disputed Black Diaries.

Blackwell was born on 6 June 1868 in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland, the youngest son of Surgeon-Major James Hay Blackwell, H.E.I.C.S., and his wife, Eliza Jane Robertson (a daughter of Andrew Robertson (d. 1868), of the Madras Civil Service, a member of a Scots gentry family; from whom Blackwell derived descent from the Royal Houses of Plantagenet, Bruce, and Stewart ) of 3, Gillespie terrace, St Andrews. Blackwell was educated at Trinity College, Glenalmond, where, as captain of school, he early displayed leadership skills, combining these with sporting prowess, as captain of the 1st XI (Cricket), 1st XV (Rugby), and of the golf team.

Destined for the legal profession, Blackwell was called to the Bar from the Inner Temple in 1892. Subsequently, he spent his career in Whitehall as a member of the British Civil Service, rising to senior appointments, first as Assistant Secretary at the Home Department from 1906 to 1913, and then as Legal Assistant Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office from 1913 until his retirement in 1933.

As chief legal advisor to the Cabinet, Blackwell was involved in the prosecution of Roger Casement, and authorised the circulation of his disputed Black Diaries, advising the Cabinet in July 1916:

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