After the war, Blackman turned his attention to electron diffraction. “Under Blackman’s leadership the electron diffraction group flourished for many years, and a total of about 20 research students completed doctorates between 1949 and 1977.” He was appointed to a personal chair in electron physics at Imperial College in 1959, and elected to Fellowship of the Royal Society in 1962. He retired in 1976, but was appointed a Senior Research Fellow. This gave him the freedom to take up another interest: the magnetism of lodestone; his last publications were on this subject.