John Samuel Greene Blair

John Samuel Greene Blair (31 December 1928 — 12 June 2023) was a Scottish surgeon, chiefly at Perth Royal Infirmary. For his service in the Territorial Army, Blair was made OBE (military). He was a former president of the Scottish Society of the History of Medicine (SSHM), and then the British Society for the History of Medicine (BSHM). He was captain of the Royal Perth Golfing Society. The John Blair Trust is named after him.

Early life and education John Blair was born on Hogmanay on 31 December 1928, in Wormit, Scotland. He was one of three children of George Blair, clerk to the income tax commissioner, and his wife, an Irish/Argentinian. He was educated at the High School of Dundee, where in 1946 he was dux. He was a Harkness Scholar at the University of St Andrews, from where he graduated MB, ChB in 1951. Between 1952 and 1955 he served as a National Service Officer in the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC). From 1964 to 1992, he was an examiner in anatomy at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. A former top student at the High School of Dundee, Blair was presented with his gold medal 60 years later in 2006 (there having been a shortage of gold in 1946), making him the only one of Dundee's top students to receive the medal in the presence of his wife and one child.

Personal life and death In 1953 Blair married Ailsa Jean Bowes MBE, and they had two sons and one daughter. Blair died at Perth Royal Infirmary on 12 June 2023.

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