He was 23 years old, and a lieutenant in the 2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen's Bays), British Army, attached to 9th Lancers (The Queen's Royal) during the Indian Mutiny when the following deed took place on 28 September 1857 at Bulandshahr, India, for which he was awarded the VC.

Date of Act of Bravery, 28th September, 1857 " A most gallant feat was here performed by Lieutenant Blair, who was ordered to take a party of one sergeant and twelve men and bring in a deserted ammunition waggon.

As his party approached, a body of fifty or sixty of the enemy's horse came down upon him, from a village, where they had remained unobserved: without a moment's hesitation he formed up his men, and, regardless of the odds, gallantly led them on, dashing through the rebels.

[1] Blair was a graduate of University of Glasgow and a Snell exhibitioner at Balliol College, Oxford.

[2] His Victoria Cross is displayed at the Queen's Dragoon Guards Regimental Museum in Cardiff Castle, Wales.