David Blackman – Emeritus Chairman.
David Blackman studied Classics at Trinity College, Cambridge after learning Russian on National Service in the Royal Navy. Experience of the Anglo-French invasion of Suez and the Russian invasion of Hungary made him a convinced pro-European Social-Democrat.
He lectured at the University of Bristol (1964-75) and then after an active role in the 1975 referendum spent 20 years at the European Parliament: first as Deputy General Secretary of the Socialist Group and then from 1990 as Head of a new Research Division for Central and Eastern Europe. In 1997 he became Director of the British School of Archaeology at Athens.
He has been a Senior Research Fellow in Oxford since October 2002, continuing research on ancient naval history. He has been a member of the European Movement since the 1960s, and has been Chair and now Emeritus Chair of the Oxford Branch.
Graham Jones – Chairman.
After an award-winning first career in newspaper journalism (reporter, sub-editor, editor, corporate manager) plus a spell at the International Press Institute, Graham became an academic in 1996. Based in Oxford University’s School of Geography and the Environment, he spends part of every year teaching at Würzburg and researching in Catalunya. He’s a former Oxford City Councillor, has chaired East Oxford Liberal Democrats, serves on the committee of Oxford’s United Nations Association branch, and is chair of governors at East Oxford Primary School whose pupils speak a total of 37 languages.
European Movement Oxford Region 