Career
Blackham joined the Royal Navy in 1961. He became Commanding Officer successively of the minesweeper HMS Beachampton, the frigate HMS Ashanti and then the destroyer HMS Nottingham. He went on to be Director-General of Naval Personnel Strategy at the Ministry of Defence before being made Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff (and, concurrently, President of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich) in 1995.
His last appointments were as Deputy Commander-in-Chief Fleet in 1997 and then Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff (Equipment Capability) in 1999 before retiring in 2002.
In retirement he became United Kingdom President of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company, the defence contractor.
