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 ...

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

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

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