Third child and second son of William Blackstock, gentleman, and Kate Anthony, his wife, he was born at 3 Cole Street, Birkenhead on 13 January 1895. He was educated at the Liverpool Collegiate High School and at King's College Hospital, London, where he was house physician, children's house physician, and house surgeon in 1917. During the European war he served as surgical specialist to the British Salonica force and army of the Black Sea from 1917 to 1920 with the rank of captain, RAMC. Returning to England he was appointed house surgeon to the orthopaedic department at King's College Hospital in 1921; and house surgeon to the ear, nose, and throat department in the following year. From 1922 to 1924 he was Sambrooke surgical registrar and surgical out-patient officer to the hospital. He served as assistant medical officer to the Treloar Cripples Hospital at Alton, Hants, from 1925 to 1926, after which he settled in practice at Wolverhampton, where he was elected orthopaedic surgeon to the Royal Hospital and surgeon to the Guest Hospital at Dudley. He married Gheta Barwise on 21 July 1923, who survived him with three children. He died suddenly on 2 June 1931 and was buried at Flaybrick Hill cemetery, Birkenhead.