Leo Blair

Leo Charles Lynton Blair, born Charles Leonard Augustus Parsons on August 4, 1923, in Filey, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, was a British barrister and academic. He was known for his work as a law lecturer at Durham University and as the father of William Blair, a High Court judge, and Anthony Charles Lynton Blair, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007.

Early Life and Family Background

Blair was the illegitimate child of Charles Parsons (1887–1970), a travelling entertainer who used the stage name Jimmy Lynton, and Mary Augusta Ridgway Bridson (1886–1969). His mother was known as Celia Ridgway, a daughter of Augustus William Bridson and Maria Emily Montford. The couple met while touring in England. Due to their hectic lifestyles, they relinquished custody of Leo, who was fostered and later adopted by a working-class couple, James Blair, a shipyard worker in Glasgow, and his wife, Mary. The Blairs kept their surname. On June 2, 1927, Parsons' biological parents married and sought to regain custody of him, but Mary Blair refused and prevented contact between Leo and his birth parents thereafter. Leo later reunited with his half-sister, Pauline Harding, née Tordiffe.

Growing up in Govan, Glasgow, Leo Blair attended Govan High School. His early employment included working as a copy boy for The Daily Worker, a Communist Party newspaper, and serving as secretary of the Scottish Young Communist League from 1938 to 1941. He briefly worked in the Glasgow City Public Assistance Department before enlisting in the Royal Corps of Signals in 1942, serving during World War II. He was demobilized in 1947 with the acting rank of major.

Education and Academic Career

Blair studied law at the University of Edinburgh, qualifying as a barrister. He later became a university law lecturer, first at the University of Adelaide during a three-and-a-half-year residence in South Australia, where his family lived after relocating there at the end of 1954. During his time in Australia, he lectured at the University of Adelaide. Subsequently, the family returned to the United Kingdom, settling in Durham, England, where Blair taught law at Durham University Law School. He was a member of St Cuthbert's Society at Durham and earned a PhD from the University of Edinburgh in 1959, with a thesis titled "The legal status of the governmental employee." His publication, *The Commonwealth Public Service* (1958), was recognized as a notable primer on the Australian Federal Public Service by the journal Canadian Public Administration.

Marriage and Children

Blair married Hazel Elizabeth Rosaleen Corscadden, from a Protestant family in County Donegal, Ireland. Their wedding was officiated by Reverend William Roy Sanderson at Barony Church in Glasgow. They had three children: two sons and a daughter. Their first son, William Blair, became a High Court judge specializing in banking and finance law. Their second son, Anthony Charles Lynton Blair, known as Tony Blair, was born in 1953 and later pursued a career in law and politics, eventually serving as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

The Blair family resided for a period in Adelaide, Australia, from late 1954 to early 1958. After returning to the UK, they lived in Durham. Blair's wife Hazel died of thyroid cancer in 1975. Following her death, Leo Blair remarried Olwen, with whom he lived in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, until her death on March 15, 2012.

Later Life

In the 1990s, Leo Blair joined the Labour Party, citing pride in his son Tony Blair’s political achievements, dissatisfaction with the Conservative Party under John Major, and opposition to railway privatization. He had been previously supportive of Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Throughout his life, Leo Blair identified as a "militant atheist," according to his son Tony Blair. Leo Blair died on November 16, 2012, in Shrewsbury at the age of 89.