David Scott Blackhall

Who was David Scott Blackhall?

David Scott Blackhall was a radio personality, author and poet. He was born in Cirencester, Gloucestershire on 9 May 1910 and died on 14 September 1981 aged 71.

After an accident in his teens, in which he sustained a detached retina, he lost the sight in his left eye. He underwent an operation in about 1943 to restore some sight in this eye, but the operation was unsuccessful. The eyesight in his right eye began to seriously deteriorate in the 50s and an operation for cataracts was unsuccessful, leaving him totally blind.

In 1961 his autobiography This House Had Windows was published. The 'David Scott Blackhall Award for Services to the Blind' was named in his honour by the BBC radio's "In Touch" programme.

In 1969 during one of his radio editions of "In Touch", he commented on a group of blind people who had climbed Mt Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa, and went on to say that Britain's highest mountain was Ben Nevis - if anyone was interested. It seemed they were, as he had a flood of letters from interested listeners who wished to make that climb.