The Scottish Military Research Group - Commemorations Project

jrah60 · Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2011 4:25 pm Post subject: F/O Colin C. Blair RAFVR

Newlands South Parish Church

The following extract was taken from the booklet “Down by the Riverside: One Hundred Years of Worship in Newlands South Church.

“The work of our Minister under war conditions was beset with difficulties better to be imagined than described. The Manse itself was not spared the great sorrow that had visited other homes. By a strange coincidence a son of the Manse in the Second World War was also to lose his life serving his country in the Air Force just like Rev. MacMillan’s son. Rev. Blair’s elder son, Flying Officer Colin C. Blair, RAFVR, was lost somewhere over Norway and there is no record of the confirmation of his death. In 1946 a dedication ceremony was held on Sunday 13th October of a Communion Cup donated to the Church by Rev. and Mrs. Blair in memory of their son Colin.”

The Cup is inscribed as follows:-

To the Glory of God and in Proud and Loving Memory of F.O. Colin Campbell Blair Missing September 1941

Name: BLAIR, COLIN CAMPBELL
Initials: C C
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Flying Officer
Regiment/Service: Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Unit Text: Photographic Reconnaissance Unit. Sqdn
Age: 26
Date of Death: 01/09/1941
Service No: 77781
Additional information: Son of the Revd. Duncan Blair, M.C., D.D., and Ada Jane Blair, of Bearsden, Dunbartonshire. Honours History and Economics, Glasgow University; Barrister-at-Law.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: Panel 29.
Memorial: RUNNYMEDE MEMORIAL, ENGLAND.

John

Adam Brown · Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2011 6:31 pm Post subject:

Flying Officer Blair has an entry on the Glasgow University online Roll of Honour

He is also listed on the George Watson's school memorial. His entry from the Watson's webpage suggests he may also be remembered in a Church in the south of Edinburgh.

Colin C. Blair, Flying Officer, Royal Air Force, was the elder son of the Rev. Duncan Blair, Newlands (South) Church of Scotland, Glasgow, and formerly minister of Braid Church, Edinburgh. Born on 19th April 1915, he attended Watson's from 1922 to 1926. He had taken a Double Honours degree in History and Economics at Glasgow University, and had all but completed his courses at Gray's Inn, London, when he volunteered for the R.A.F. in 1939. He was lost over Norway in 1941

The former Braid Church at the bottom of Morningside Road in Edinburgh has merged with Morningside Parish Church in recent years and I believe it is up for sale, if not sold.

Adam