Major John Christopher Blaxland

 

 

Major John Christopher Blaxland

1917-2003

Field Service Cap, c. 1951

 

Blaxland was gazetted to the General List as a university candidate in August of 1939 and commissioned into the Royal Engineers on the 3rd of September. He joined the staff of the Royal Engineers as an acting captain in June of 1940. On the 2nd of September that year, Blaxland was made a war substantive lieutenant and then a temporary captain in 1942. He became a war substantive captain on the 9th of May, 1945, and a temporary major the same day. Blaxland’s captaincy was made permanent in March of 1946. He transferred to the 15th/19th The King’s Royal Hussars on the 10th of May, 1950. Blaxland obtained his majority on the 3rd of March, 1951. An excellent horseman, he won both the Prix Caprilli and the Grade ‘A’ show-jumping competition in a horse show organized by the 8th Hussars in 1953. After joining the 15th/19th Hussars, Blaxland periodically served as second-in-command of the regiment and was in that role upon his retirement in 1959.