David Blair

David Blair (4 June 1820 – 19 February 1899) was an Irish Australian politician, journalist and encyclopaedist.

Background David Blair was born in County Monaghan, Ireland to parents of Scottish descent. He studied at the Hibernian Military School, Dublin. After leaving the school in 1835, he worked for an uncle's business but did not enjoy it.

In 1840 he obtained a job as a human calculator for the Ordnance Survey of Ireland. He was originally based in Limerick and Cork but was moved to Southampton in 1841. He kept this job, where he assisted with England's triangulation survey, for almost nine years. and a contributor to Victorian Review.

Blair had a politically unimpactful tenure in the legislative assembly of Victoria, to which he was elected twice: once in 1856 and the second time in 1868. He was appointed Secretary to the Royal Commission on Education in 1867 and Secretary to the Penal Commission in 1873. Their daughter Florence Baverstock has been noted as a fine writer, having on occasion contributed articles for her father when he was indisposed. In September 1896 she replaced the dangerously ill Ina Wildman ("Sappho Smith") as editor of The Bulletin'''s Women's pages.