In 1955, George Blackman applied for an apprenticeship with a local office equipment firm in Hastings and was indentured for a six-year term as a typewriter mechanic. In his early years he covered firms all over East Sussex servicing office machines and visited several famous authors to service their beloved typewriters. He entered National Service from 1960 to 1962, serving in an exclusive RAOC unit supporting field operations by the Parachute Regiment in Europe and Africa.

After returning to the firm as a qualified engineer, George was eventually promoted to service manager, with ten engineers working under him. During this period he engaged apprentices, including his son Neil, personally training them in all aspects of typewriter engineering over five years. Neil completed his apprenticeship as a fully qualified typewriter engineer in 1985.

In 1986, George and Neil left to open their own business, George Blackman Business Equipment, with George’s wife Joan running the accounts and serving in the shop. The business acquired the main dealerships of Triumph-Adler and Olympia Business Machines for the East Sussex area, later opening a larger showroom in nearby Bexhill.

The BBC and other media contacted George when it became known he was the engineer who had serviced and repaired author Winston Graham’s typewriter — the machine on which Graham typed all his Poldark novels for many years. In January 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the Bexhill shop to close. George, then 81, took more of a back seat, visiting a few days a week. He passed away peacefully at home in the spring of 2023.