William Blair

William Blair (1741–1782) was a Scottish officer in the Royal Navy. He became lieutenant in 1760, commander in 1777, and post-captain in 1778. He fought the Dutch at Dogger Bank in 1781, and was killed in battle with the French off Dominica in 1782.

Life William Blair was the son of Daniel Blair of Edinburgh, collaterally related to the Blairs of Balthayock. He first went to sea in merchant ships, and later served in the Royal Navy, as surgeon's servant, able seaman, and midshipman, in the Windsor, Firebrand, Amazon, Aleide, Hussar, and Eolus. He passed his lieutenant's examination on 30 May 1760, In the heat of the action a round-shot, sweeping some 3 ft (0.9 m) above the deck, struck Blair at the waist, smashing his body right in two and carrying half of it across the deck and up against the bulwarks on the farther side.

A monument to Captain William Blair's memory, jointly with his fellow officers, Captains William Bayne and Lord Robert Manners, was designed by Joseph Nollekens and erected by order of Parliament in Westminster Abbey at the public expense. The 25 ft (7.6 m) high marble monument was not completed till 1793. It consists of a figure of Fame standing atop a column which has relief portraits of the captains attached, above figures of Britannia and a lion opposite figures of Neptune and a sea-horse.

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