Thomas Blackburn (16 March 1844 – 28 May 1912) was an English-born Australian priest and entomologist who specialized in the study of beetles.

[3] In 1876, Blackburn was transferred to the Hawaiian Islands, where he served as senior priest and chaplain to the bishop of the Church of Hawaii in Honolulu.

[7] Blackburn was transferred to Australia in 1882, becoming rector of St. Thomas' Church in Port Lincoln from 1882 to 1886, then of St. Margaret's in Woodville, where he remained for the rest of his life.

In the words of his obituarist Arthur Lea, Curator of Entomology at the South Australian Museum, "He was a systematist, pure and simple, taking no interest, or, at any rate, very little, in the life histories of the insects themselves.

[12] A significant part of his collections, including most of his type material, is housed at the Natural History Museum, London.