Charles Blackburn

Who was Charles Blackburn?

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Charles Bickerton Blackburn KCMG, OBE was an Australian university chancellor and physician. Blackburn was born in Greenhithe, Kent, England, to the cleric and entomologist Thomas Blackburn and his wife Jessie Ann, née Wood. Mainly known as a long-serving chancellor and board member of the University of Sydney, he was also a councillor of the Australian Medical Association and the Association of Physicians of Australasia.

Blackburn served in World War I as a lieutenant-colonel for the Australian Army Medical Corps. He was awarded an OBE for his services towards the Medical Corps, and became the chair of the Commonwealth Royal Commission on the assessment of war service disabilities, in 1924. In World War II, Blackburn served in the 113 Australian General Hospital, in Concord.

Blackburn graduated from the University of Sydney with a M.B and Ch.M. He began his medical career at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, Australia. He set up his own private practice in 1903, but he still remained connected with the hospital. Blackburn died in Bellevue Hill, at the age of 98.