British astrologer and psychotherapist, author of the books, Harmonic Charts (1983), The Spirit of Numbers: A New Exploration of Harmonic Astrology (2011) and Harmonic Astrology in Practice (2019).
Hamblin was a part-time astrologer from 1970-1988. For three years he was Chairman of the Astrological Association of Great Britain. His book Harmonic Charts was written over the course of a two-year period, 1981-1982, and it was published in 1983. Decades later his book remains a definitive work on the subject.
But in 1988, Hamblin said he became disillusioned with astrology in general and removed himself from its study. In an essay contained in Garry Phillipson’s book Astrology in the Year Zero, Hamblin spells out his reasons. By early 2004 his interest in astrology, particularly in research, had been re-awakened. He began researching higher harmonic numbers with a view to writing a book (provisionally entitled “Astrology and the Meaning of Numbers”); his The Spirit of Numbers was published in 2011.
The elder of two children whose parents were both teachers, Hamblin studied Classics at Oxford University from 1953-1957, and from 1957-1958 he studied Personnel Management at the London School of Economics. He became a researcher, and later a teacher of organizational theory at the University of Bath. Around 1970 he published a book on evaluation of training. In August 1985 he took early retirement from the University and became a psychotherapist (having been trained at the Psychosynthesis and Education Trust). Hamblin retired as a psychotherapist on 20 April 2000.
He married Caroline in June 1966, and they had two daughters: Jessica (born 26 January 1968) and Bella (born 19 July 1969). In the 1970s, he changed his name from Anthony to David for two reasons: he disliked the name Anthony/Tony and his mother had said that David was her favorite name and she wished she had called him that. He was divorced from Caroline early in 1979 Later that same year, his mother Phyllis was drowned at sea early in the morning of 17 June 1979. He married Helen on 15 September 1980, and this marriage is still going strong.
David was virtually blind in his left eye since birth. A keen walker, he wrote an article on the need for psychotherapists to be aware of the client’s relationships with places as well as with people.
He died on 21 January 2022 at age 86.