William Blair (surgeon)

William Blair (28 January 1766 – 6 December 1822) was an English surgeon with an interest in ciphers and stenography. He was known also for contributing articles to Rees's Cyclopædia.

Biography

William Blair was born in 1766 in Lavenham, Suffolk. He was the youngest son of William Blair, M.D., and his wife Ann Gideon. He qualified as a surgical practice in London under Mr. J. Pearson of Golden Square, who introduced him to the London Lock Hospital, and when a vacancy arose he was given a position as a surgeon to that charity. Blair was an M.A. but it is not known where he graduated. He became very eminent in his profession, and was surgeon to the Asylum, the Finsbury Dispensary, the Bloomsbury Dispensary for the relief of the Sick Poor in Great Russell Street, the Female Penitentiary at Cumming House, Pentonville, and the New Rupture Society.

He was a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, London, and of the medical societies of London, Paris, Brussels, and Aberdeen. For some time he was editor of the London Medical Review and Magazine. Blair was a keen Methodist, and worked in the cause of the British and Foreign Bible Society, to which he presented his valuable collection of rare and curious editions of the Bible, and many scarce commentaries in different languages. He attempted lectures on anatomy and other subjects, but with little success. On his wife's death in March 1822 he resolved to give up professional practice, and to retire into the country. He took a house in the neighbourhood of Colchester, but before the preparations for removing were completed he was seized with illness, and died at his residence in Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury on 6 December 1822.

William Blair

William Blair may refer to:

William Blair (Nova Scotia politician)

William M. Blair (May 25, 1836 – June 17, 1919) was a farmer and political figure in Nova Scotia, Canada. He represented Colchester County in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly from 1878 to 1886 as a Liberal-Conservative member.

He was born in Onslow, Nova Scotia and educated there. In 1864, he married Harriet Blair. He was lieutenant-colonel in the militia, commanding a Highlanders battalion from Pictou, Hants and Colchester. Blair was an arent promoter of modern farming, and was deeply involved in agricultural reform efforts in Nova Scotia. He was president of the Onslow Agricultural Society and chairman of the Agricultural Exhibition Committee, was a prominent member of the Nova Scotia Farmers' Association from its inception in 1895 until his death, and participated in lobbying the provincial government for the creation of a provincial School of Agriculture in 1885 (which became the Nova Scotia Agricultural College in 1905). Most substantively, Blair was the first supervisor of the federally funded Experimental Farm in Nappan, Nova Scotia, heading it from its creation in 1887 until his retirement in 1896. He died in 1919.