Harold John Blackham (31 March 1903 – 23 January 2009) was a leading British humanist philosopher, writer and educationalist.

Blackham left school following the end of World War I, and became a farm labourer, before gaining a place at Birmingham University to study divinity and history.

[2] Joining the Ethical Union, Blackham drew the organisation further away from religious forms and played an important part in its formation into the British Humanist Association, becoming the BHA's first Executive Director in 1963.

[3] During his time at the Ethical Union/BHA, Blackham co-founded the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, and as chairman of the Friends of Austria assisted Austrian children fleeing the Nazis to come to the UK.

He suffered a stroke in 2000, and on 23 January 2009, he died at a care home in Brockhampton, Herefordshire, aged 105.