Hon. S. D. Blandford, Excerpts from The Newfoundland Quarterly, 1909, 1913 and 1914.
1909
HON. SYDNEY D. BLANDFORD, who has charge of the Department of Agriculture and Mines, is the son of the late Hon. Captain Samuel Blandford, and enjoyed the unique distinction in this colony of holding a Cabinet office in the Lower House, while his father was a member of the Upper House. Born in Greenspond in 1869, Mr. Blandford was educated at Bishop Feild and Methodist Colleges in this city, and studied Law under the late Rt. Hon. Sir W. V. Whiteway and the present Mr. Justice Johnson. Elected member for his native District, Bonavista, in 1904 with Messrs. Morine and Chaplin, he won again by an increased majority in the fall of 1908 with Mr, Morison and Captain Winsor, and at the General Election on the 8th of May, in the present year, he rolled up the highest vote ever polled in the history of the Colony. His legal and business training will serve him in good stead in the very important office which he now holds. He is an active and earnest churchman and is the People's Warden of the Church of England Cathedral in this city. He is married to Miss Lillian Reynolds, of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
1913
Hon. S. D. Blandford tho younger in years and political experience has nevertheless proved himself a worthy representative and an efficient colleague of the attorney-general. Mr blandford whom as we have already said, is a son of the late Hon Capt. S. Blandford, first entered the politioal arena in 1904 when he contested Bonavista District with Mr. Morine and Mr. Chaplin as a candidate on behalf of the opposition. They were conspicuously successful carrying the district by an immense majority and in 1908 Mr. Blandford with his present colleagues proved equally successful. Few men in our political life have shown more of the quality of fidelity in the way of consulting the wishes of their constituents or in endeavoring to promote the advancement of the district; and Mr. Blandford is a man of whom it can be said that he has few if any enemies. In all the political recrimination of recent years little of an objectionable character has been said about him personally and he seems to possess the faculty of maintaining a correct and unquivocal stand on public questions as a party man without arising any of the bitterness that is all too general in our political arena. He has also made it a point to entering closely into the concerns of all his constituents who have submitted their interests to him and he has won golden opinions through out the district while in his administration of the department he has contriquted materially towards popularizing the policy of the present government in regard to agricultural development.
1914
The re-appointment of Hon. S. D. Blandford to the Department of Agriculture and Mines over which he presided the past five years when the rearrangement of offices rendered necessary by the defeat of Mr. Morison and himself was elected. Hon. Mr. Blandford is one of the best
HON. SYDNEY D. BLANDFORD known and most popular of our younger politicians and has done good service in Bonavista District to the representation of which he was elected in 1904. His family has been long and honorably identified with that constituency, his father the late Hon. Capt. S. Blandford having represented it and also his uncle, Capt. Darius Blandford. Mr. Blandford was born in this city in 1870 and educated at Bishop Field College, studied Law with the late Sir James Winter and has been a practicing Solicitor of the Supreme Court for many years. He also does a large insurance business and has been prominently identified with public matters for many years. As a representative of Bonavista District he won the regard of the people by his unselfish and unwavering efforts on their behalf while he represented the constituency, and as a member of the Morris Administration he proved himself a man of good judgment and business capacity. It is a tribute of which he may feel deservedly proud that the Editor of the Evening Telegram in his comments on the appointment of Messrs. Squires and Blandford to the Upper House and to Cabinet Portfolios, should have said of the subject of this notice:
" We have no fault to find with Mr. Blandford for any sins of commission, committed on his behalf. We have investigated the affairs of his office as closely as any man outside official life and we must say, in justice to Mr. Blandford, that we have not come across evidence which tends to show that during his tenure of office he ever used his office for undue or unfair personal advantage. We look upon Mr. Blandford as a man with clean hands."