Born in Nottingham, the eldest son of W.N.Blair, the engineer to the St. Pancras Borough Council. Educated at Highgate and at Birkbeck College, London University. Joined the Civil Service in 1901 where he served in the offices of the Paymaster General and of the Supreme Court until 1910 when he seized an opportunity to transfer as an Assistant in the Entomological Department of the NHM. He became Deputy Keeper in 1932 and obtained a D.Sc. at the University of London in 1933. During the First World War Blair served with the Seaforth Highlanders and was twice invalided home. He never fully recovered from the second of these illnesses which eventually compelled his retirement from the Museum in 1943. He moved to Freshwater in the Isle of Wight in 1945 where he remained until his death.
Blair worked in the NHM on the world Coleoptera collections specialising in the Meloidae, Tenebrionidae, Pyrochroidae and Pythidae in which groups he revised the classification and also described various new species. His publications, amounting to some two hundred articles, were mainly in these groups although he also wrote on other orders too. Indeed, his knowledge of all orders and particularly the literature was well known, and was one of the reasons, along with his editorial skills, why he was particularly welcomed on to the editorial board of the Ent.mon.Mag., in 1923.
Blair described three British species as new to science Aglyptinus agathidioides (1930), 'Trixagus seriatus (1942, now synonymised with T. carinifrons (de Bonv.) and Catharmiocerus britannicus (1934), besides bringing forward many others as new to Britain. He was also interested in the problems of distribution and his 'The Beetles of the Scilly Islands' (Proc.Zool.Soc.Lond., 1931,1211-1258) is notable in that respect. Harvey, et al (1996) list a collection of 400 pen and ink drawings by Barbara Hopkins for an unpublished work by Blair, Atlas of Coleoptera Larvae, in the NHM, together with three letters sent to him by Cedric Dover from the Forest Research Institute in Dehra Dun, India.
There are obituaries in Ent.mopn.Mag., 89, 1953, 25-29 (including photograph and tributes by H. Britten and others) and Proc.S.Lond.Ent.nat.Hist.Soc., 1952-53, xliii-xliv (by C.N.Hawkins, including photograph). Two moths, Blair's wainscot and Blair's Mocha, which he captured at Freshwater, commemorate his name. Duff (1983), 5 details Blair's collecting actvities in Somerset in 1933, 1936, and 1942 and his correspondence with C.N.Hawkins.
FES 1904-1952, President 1940-41, Vice President 1942, Council 1918-20, 1931-33 and 1942, Special Life Fellow 1944. He was also President of the SLENHS 1920-21 and 1931, and was for many years on the Publications Committee before being elected an Honorary Member in 1950. (MD 10/01, 10/03)