Brigadier-General Everard McLeod Blair (26 July 1866 – 16 May 1939) was an Indian-born English soldier and
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...
er. Blair was a career soldier in the
Royal Engineers, rising to the rank of Brigadier-General when he retired in 1918. He played in seven
first-class cricket
First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...
matches for
Kent County Cricket Club between 1893 and 1900.
Early life and education
Blair was born in 1866 at
Bangalore
Bangalore (), List of renamed places in India, officially Bengaluru (), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan area, metropolitan population of a ...
, then in the state of
Mysore
Mysore (), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern part of the state of Karnataka, India. Mysore city is geographically located between 12° 18′ 26″ north latitude and 76° 38′ 59″ east longitude. It is located at an altitude of ...
in
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
. His father, Gustavus Blair, was a Colonel in the
Royal Artillery
The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...
.
[Lewis P (2014) ''For Kent and Country'', pp.104–107. Brighton: Reveille Press.] Blair attended
Cheltenham College
("Work Conquers All")
, established =
, closed =
, type = Public school Independent School Day and Boarding School
, religion = Church of England
, president =
, head_label = Head
, head = Nicola Hugget ...
where he represented the school in
racquets and
gymnastics
Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, s ...
as well as being in the cricket XI in 1883 and 1884.
From Cheltenham he went on to the
Royal Military Academy, Woolwich where he again played for the cricket team and, along with a Captain Hamilton, won the Military Racquets Cup in 1895.
[Blair, Major-General Everard McLeod CMG RE]
Obituaries in 1939. ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack
''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...
'', 1940. Retrieved 2017-04-01.
Military career
Blair was commissioned as a lieutenant in the
Royal Engineers in February 1886. After serving in Hong Kong he was appointed instructor in fieldworks at the
Royal School of Military Engineering
The Royal School of Military Engineering (RSME) Group provides a wide range of training for the British Army and Defence. This includes; Combat Engineers, Carpenters, Chartered Engineers, Musicians, Band Masters, Sniffer Dogs, Veterinary Techni ...
at
Chatham. In March 1896 he was promoted to captain and became an instructor at the
Royal Military Academy from 1898 to 1903.
Promotions to major, in 1904, and lieutenant-colonel, in 1912, followed.
During
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
Blair served primarily in
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...
and
Palestine. He arrived in
Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...
in January 1916 and was appointed Chief Engineer for the
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...
District before being promoted to colonel and then temporary brigadier-general and made chief engineer for part of the
Suez Canal between
El Ferdan and
Port Said, during which time he was
Mentioned in Dispatches.
In October 1916 Blair was charge of water supply works to support the
advance of British forces into Palestine. Pipelines were laid under Blair's leadership across the
Sinai Desert
Sinai commonly refers to:
* Sinai Peninsula, Egypt
* Mount Sinai, a mountain in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt
* Biblical Mount Sinai, the site in the Bible where Moses received the Law of God
Sinai may also refer to:
* Sinai, South Dakota, a place ...
from
El Qantara, Egypt, first to
El Arish
ʻArish or el-ʻArīsh ( ar, العريش ' , ''Hrinokorura'') is the capital and largest city (with 164,830 inhabitants ) of the North Sinai Governorate of Egypt, as well as the largest city on the entire Sinai Peninsula, lying on the Medite ...
in northern Sinai and then extended to
Rafah
Rafah ( ar, رفح, Rafaḥ) is a Palestinian city in the southern Gaza Strip. It is the district capital of the Rafah Governorate, located south of Gaza City. Rafah's population of 152,950 (2014) is overwhelmingly made up of former Palestini ...
in Palestine.
[Lewis p '' op. cit.'', pp.82–84.] The pipeline was completed after the
Second Battle of Gaza
The Second Battle of Gaza was fought on 17-19 April 1917, following the defeat of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) at the First Battle of Gaza in March, during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of the First World War. Gaza was defended by ...
in April 1917. Whilst the works were ongoing Blair was awarded the
Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the
1917 New Year Honours
The 1917 New Year Honours were appointments by King George V to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of the British Empire. The appointments were published in several editions of ''The London Gazette'' in Ja ...
.
Before the completion of the pipeline works Blair returned to England in March 1917 and served in the London Defences area. He was found medically unfit for services in February 1918 suffering from
neurasthenia
Neurasthenia (from the Ancient Greek νεῦρον ''neuron'' "nerve" and ἀσθενής ''asthenés'' "weak") is a term that was first used at least as early as 1829 for a mechanical weakness of the nerves and became a major diagnosis in North A ...
, a condition he had first suffered from in 1903. He was found permanently unfit for service in July 1918 and retired with the honorary rank of Brigadier-General in August. He was awarded the
Silver War Badge.
Cricketing career
Blair played cricket regularly for the
Royal Engineers Cricket Club until 1905, scoring over 500 runs in five seasons and captaining the side in 1892 and 1893. He also played racquets, winning the Army Doubles Championship several times.
He appeared in seven
first-class cricket
First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...
matches for
Kent County Cricket Club, five in 1893 and one in each of the 1896 and 1900 season.
[Everard Blair]
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2020-12-21. In his first-class debut he scored 61 runs against
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean.
The county town is the city of Gl ...
at the
County Ground, Bristol
The Bristol County Ground (also known as Nevil Road and currently known as the Seat Unique Stadium for sponsorship reasons) is a senior cricket venue in Bristol, England. It is in the district of Ashley Down. The ground is home to Gloucestershir ...
, form which his
Wisden
''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...
obituary said that he "never regained", despite being "strong in defence with plenty of shots".
He was described as a strong defensive player "with plenty of strokes" who "bowled slow leg-breaks and fielded admirably".
He became a member of
MCC in 1894 and played for them against
Hertfordshire at
Lord's in 1902. Whilst posted overseas he played for
Hong Kong Cricket Club
The Hong Kong Cricket Club () is situated in the heart of Hong Kong Island surrounded by the hills and greenery of Wong Nai Chung Gap
Wong Nai Chung Gap () is a geographic gap in the middle of Hong Kong Island in Hong Kong. The gap is betwee ...
in five games in 1890 and 1891.
Later life
Blair suffered from
neurasthenia
Neurasthenia (from the Ancient Greek νεῦρον ''neuron'' "nerve" and ἀσθενής ''asthenés'' "weak") is a term that was first used at least as early as 1829 for a mechanical weakness of the nerves and became a major diagnosis in North A ...
for the remainder of his life after retiring in 1918. He lived in
Bath and was supported by his wife Nora who he had married in China in 1902. He died in
St Andrew's Hospital in
Northampton in May 1939 aged 72.
[Carlaw D (2020) ''Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part One: 1806–1914'' (revised edition), pp.63–64.]
Available online
at the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians
The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS) was founded in England in 1973 for the purpose of researching and collating information about the history and statistics of cricket. Originally called the Association of Cricket Statis ...
. Retrieved 2020-12-21.)
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blair, Everard
1866 births
1939 deaths
English cricketers
Kent cricketers
People educated at Cheltenham College
Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich
Royal Engineers officers
Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George