Leo Blair
A monochromic full-length photograph of Blair
Photograph of Blair in A Journey
Born
Charles Leonard Augustus Parsons

(1923-08-04)4 August 1923
Filey, East Yorkshire, England
Died16 November 2012(2012-11-16) (aged 89)
Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England
Alma materUniversity of Edinburgh
Occupations
Political party
Spouses
Hazel Corscadden McLay
​
​
(m. 1948; died 1975)​
    Olwen Guy
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1980; died 2012)​
    Children3, including William and Tony
    RelativesEuan Blair (grandson)
    Military career
    Service/branchBritish Army
    Years of service1942–1947
    RankMajor
    UnitRoyal Corps of Signals
    Battles/warsSecond World War

    Leo Charles Lynton Blair (born Charles Leonard Augustus Parsons; 4 August 1923 – 16 November 2012) was a British barrister and law lecturer at Durham University.[1] He was the author of the book The Commonwealth Public Service. He was the father of Sir Tony Blair, the former prime minister of the United Kingdom, and of Sir William Blair, a High Court judge.

    Early life

    Born Charles Leonard Augustus Parsons in Filey, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, he was the illegitimate[2] son of two middle class travelling entertainers. His father, Charles Parsons (1887–1970), had the stage name Jimmy Lynton while his mother, Mary Augusta Ridgway Bridson (1886–1969), was known as Celia Ridgway and was a daughter of Augustus William Bridson (1849–1933) and Maria Emily Montford (1864–1944).[3] The couple met on tour in England. Their hectic lifestyles prompted them to give up baby Leo, who was fostered out to (and later adopted by) a working-class couple, a Glasgow shipyard worker named James Blair and his wife Mary, taking their surname. On 2 June 1927, his biological parents married and tried to reclaim him, but Mary Blair refused to return him and later prevented him from contacting his birth parents. (Leo later had a reunion with his half-sister, Pauline Harding, née Tordiffe.)

    Blair grew up in a tenement in Golspie Street, Govan, Glasgow, and attended Govan High School. When he left school, he worked as a copy boy on the Communist Party newspaper The Daily Worker. He was secretary of the Scottish Young Communist League from 1938 to 1941.

    Blair next worked briefly in the Glasgow City Public Assistance Department before enlisting in the Royal Corps of Signals for service in the Second World War in 1942; he was demobilised with the acting rank of major in 1947.[4]

    He studied law at the University of Edinburgh,[5] becoming a barrister and later, a university law lecturer.

    Marriage and children

    Blair married Hazel Elizabeth Rosaleen Corscadden from a Protestant family in County Donegal, Ireland. They were married by the future Moderator, Rev William Roy Sanderson, at Barony Church in Glasgow.[6] They had two sons, both of whom attended Fettes College (an independent school in Edinburgh), and a daughter.[4] Their first son, Sir William Blair, a banking and finance law specialist, became a High Court judge. Their second son, Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (Tony Blair), was born in 1953 and also became a barrister before becoming a politician and, in 1997, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. At the end of 1954, the family moved to Adelaide, Australia, for 3+1⁄2 years, where Blair lectured in law at the University of Adelaide.

    Blair and his family later returned to England, living in Durham, where Blair lectured in law at Durham University Law School. He was a member of St Cuthbert's Society, one of the university's collegiate bodies. In 1959, he was awarded a PhD from the University of Edinburgh for a thesis entitled "The legal status of the governmental employee".[7] Despite having been a communist in his youth, Leo became active in the Conservative Party. He had ambitions to stand for Parliament in Durham, hoping to become a candidate in the 1964 general election, which were thwarted when he suffered a stroke in 1963 at the age of 40. Following Blair's stroke, he had to rely heavily on his wife Hazel to look after him.[8]

    Later life

    Blair joined the Labour Party when his son became its leader in 1994, citing pride at his son's achievements, his dissatisfaction with the Conservatives under John Major and his objection to railway privatisation.[4] He had previously been "a huge supporter" of Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher.[9]

    Blair's first wife, Hazel (12 June 1923 – 28 June 1975), died of thyroid cancer. He remarried and lived in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, with his second wife, Olwen, until her death on 15 March 2012. Cherie and Tony Blair named their youngest son Leo after him.

    Blair was a "militant atheist", according to his son Tony.[10]

    Blair died in Shrewsbury aged 89 on 16 November 2012.[1][4]

    Academic work

    Blair's book The Commonwealth Public Service (1958) was described by the journal Canadian Public Administration as "an excellent primer on the Australian Federal Public Service".[11]

    References

    1. 1 2 "Tony Blair's father Leo dies at the age of 89". BBC News. 16 November 2012. Retrieved 24 February 2018.
    2. ↑ "Blair: 'Why adoption is close to my heart'". The Guardian. 21 December 2000. Retrieved 24 February 2018.
    3. ↑ Davies, Edward J. (2008). "A Descent of Tony Blair from James V, King of Scots". The Genealogist. 22: 247–55.
    4. 1 2 3 4 Childs, Martin (19 November 2012). "Leo Blair: Barrister who began as a Conservative but followed his son into the Labour Party". The Independent. Retrieved 24 February 2018.
    5. ↑ "Blair's birthplace is bulldozed in Edinburgh". The Scotsman. Retrieved 24 February 2018.
    6. ↑ "Very Rev W Roy Sanderson". The Scotsman. 24 June 2008. Retrieved 24 February 2018.
    7. ↑ Blair, Leo (1959). The legal status of the governmental employee : a comparative study (Report).
    8. ↑ Ahmed, Kamal (27 April 2003). "Family tragedy at the heart of Blair's ambition". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
    9. ↑ Moore, Charles (2015). Margaret Thatcher: Everything She Wants. Vol. 2. Penguin Books. p. 579. ISBN 978-0-241-20126-8.
    10. ↑ "Blair: 'Tony Blair on finding religion via reason'". The Washington Post. December 2009. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
    11. ↑ "Review of 'The Commonwealth Public Service'". Canadian Public Administration. 2 (4): 255.
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