David Blazer was a successful strongman and was at his peak during the years leading up to the First World War (1914-1918). He was generally known as Seaman Blazer and Monte Saldo featured him in a number of advertisements for the Maxalding course. When the highly respected strength historian W. J. Lowry wrote his History of the 'Iron Game' he included David 'Seaman' Blazer.

When the 'true' father of British Weightlifting, Professor Szalay, lost his court case with Eugen Sandow it left him destitiute at the age of 51. All the great names of the strength world organised benefits for him, most notably the one by Monte Saldo. The athletes that supported this show read like a 'Who's Who' of the British sporting scene. One of the items on the programme was a Physical Excellence Competition to choose Britain's best developed man and David Blazer won it.

David later set a number of British weightlifting records; he was a pupil of Monte Saldo and trained on his non-apparatus Maxalding system when at sea and practiced weightlifting when not on board ship.

Ron Tyrrell

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David Blazer later took up a succesful stage career. Read about this and and his other achievements in an illustrated biography written by his grandson Roger Blazer