spent the rest of the war as a prisoner-of-war. After he was liberated in 1945, he returned to Australia and was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services on Java in 1942. Following the war, Blackburn was appointed as a conciliation commissioner of the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration until 1955 and in that year was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) for his services to the community. He died in 1960 and was buried with full military honours in the Australian Imperial Force section of the West Terrace Cemetery, Adelaide. His Victoria Cross and other medals are displayed in the Hall of Valour at the Australian War Memorial. Early life Arthur Seaforth Blackburn was born on 25 November 1892 at Woodville, South Australia. He was the youngest child of Thomas Blackburn, an Anglican canon and entomologist, and his second wife, Margaret Harriette Stewart, Browne. Arthur was initially educated at Pulteney Grammar School. His mother died in 1904 at the age of 40. In 1906, he entered St Peter's College, Adelaide, and this was followed by studies at the University of Adelaide, where he completed a Bachelor of Laws in 1913, after being articled to C.B.Hardy. During Blackburn's term as his articled clerk, on one occasion Hardy was assaulted by two men on the street, and despite his slight build, Blackburn intervened and chased them away. In 1911, compulsory military training had been introduced, and Arthur had joined the South Australian Scottish Regiment of the Citizen Military Forces (CMF). He was called to the bar on 13 December 1913. His half-brother, Charles Blackburn, became a prominent Sydney doctor, served in the Australian Army Medical Corps in World War I, and later became a long-serving Chancellor of the University of Sydney. Their father died in 1912. At the outbreak of World War I, Arthur was practising as a solicitor in Adelaide with the firm of Nesbit and Nesbit, and was still serving in the CMF. World War I Gallipoli On 19 August 1914, aged 21, Blackburn enlisted as a private in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) and was assigned to the 10th Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 1st Division. The 10th Battalion underwent initial training at Morphettville in Adelaide, South Australia, before embarking on at nearby Outer Harbor on 20 October. Sailing via Fremantle and Colombo in Ceylon,