Post
by Richard James » Wed Oct 11, 2023 6:26 pm
Hi Paul
It was good to talk to you in the pub last night.
Not convinced by Reginald John Blackburn. He lived in Middlesex, serving in the Royal Navy during WW2, and later in Suffolk. I can't find any trace of him in Surrey, although I suppose he might have lived there briefly or been a member of a Surrey club.
He was interviewed in a local paper in 1995, giving his interests as croquet, gardening, model building, restoring Victorian pictures and frames, painting, reading, making love, the company of loyal friends, drinking. 'Not necessarily in that order.' No mention at all of chess.
The only RJ Blackburn I could find in Surrey in that period was a marriage in 1951 where the groom was Robert Blackburn, eldest son of Mr & Mrs RJ Blackburn of 191 Eastworth Road, Chertsey. He was a former pupil of Salesian College, working as a journalist on Flight magazine. The father was Robert James Blackburn (1895-1970) and the son was also Robert James Blackburn (1928-2000). Either would be possible from the date. The family had earlier lived in North London and don't seem to have been in Chertsey very long.
But, strangely, I can find no press record anywhere of a chess player named RJ Blackburn round about that time - or any other time. Unfortunately, in that period county matches weren't often recorded in the papers. I could have a look sometime in BCM and CHESS for that period to see if anything comes up.