Richard Blackburn

Sir Richard Arthur Blackburn OBE (26 July 1918 – 1 October 1987) was an Australian judge, prominent legal academic and military officer. He became a judge of three courts in Australia, and eventually became chief justice of the Australian Capital Territory. In the 1970s he decided one of Australia's earliest Aboriginal Land rights cases. His service to the Australian legal community is commemorated by the annual Sir Richard Blackburn Memorial lectures in Canberra.

Blackburn was born on 26 July 1918. He was the son of Brigadier Arthur Seaforth Blackburn VC and Rose Ada Blackburn (née Kelly). His father was at that time a Commissioner of the now defunct Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration. His father had previously been a prominent legal practitioner in South Australia. Blackburn was educated at St Peter's College, Adelaide and was an undergraduate at St Mark's College at the University of Adelaide. He graduated with First Class Honours in English Literature from the University of Adelaide. He won the John Howard Clark Prize as the candidate who was placed highest in the final examination. He was chosen as the Rhodes Scholar for South Australia in 1940, but did not take it up immediately because of the outbreak of the Second World War.

On 14 May 1940, during the Second World War, he enlisted with the Australian Army at Adelaide. He served with the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) in active service in North Africa and Papua New Guinea until his discharge on 7 November 1945 as a Captain in the 2/9 Division Cavalry Regiment.

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