John Taylor Blackburn was born in Leeds on 3 July 1898 the son of Harry Blackburn, a headmaster, and Edith (née Brandlein). He attended Leeds Grammar School and later entered Leeds University with a scholarship. At the end of the first world war he served as a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery. He qualified in 1920 and was appointed house surgeon to Lord Moynihan. This was followed by appointments as resident casualty officer and resident surgical officer at Leeds General Infirmary. He passed both the FRCS and ChM examinations in 1924, the latter with distinction. He moved to Pontefract in 1926 upon his appointment as consultant surgeon to the General Infirmary there, a post he held for the rest of his professional career. He was a complete general surgeon, undertaking orthopaedics, gynaecology and obstetrics and ENT work, all with equal speed and skill. Few, if any cases were ever referred to the local teaching hospital, the General Infirmary at Leeds. In the early days he was responsible for medical cases as well, for the Infirmary received only a weekly visit from a Leeds-based physician. For many years the full-time medical staff consisted of only a resident surgical officer, together with a house physician and a house surgeon, both straight from medical school. Blackburn had a thriving private practice and could support a household comprising a butler, cook, housemaid, handyman, a Bentley and a Rolls-Royce. His first wife, Doris Vizard, whom he married about the time he came to Pontefract, owned two medical and surgical appliance companies in Leeds, which she attended daily. Blackburn's outside interests were the stage and horse-racing. Pontefract was an ideal location for this as it had its own race-course and five others within twenty-five miles. He also served as a local magistrate. Around 1948 he suddenly resigned his appointments and left to live in Ireland where he embarked upon a new career fattening bullocks for market, shooting and playing golf. He married Elizabeth Brearley in 1959; later they moved to Swansea and then to Harrogate. He died following a stroke on 2 December 1983, aged 84, his wife having predeceased him.