Everard Blair

Brigadier-General Everard McLeod Blair CMG (26 July 1866 – 16 May 1939) was an Indian-born English soldier and cricketer. 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 matches for Kent County Cricket Club between 1893 and 1900.

Blair was born in 1866 at Bangalore, then in the state of Mysore in British India. His father, Gustavus Blair, was a Colonel in the Royal Artillery. Blair attended Cheltenham College where he represented the school in racquets and gymnastics 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 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 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 Blair served primarily in Egypt and Palestine. He arrived in Alexandria in January 1916 and was appointed Chief Engineer for the Cairo 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.