Remembering the Fallen: on this day in 1915, Major William Kenneth Playfair Blair, 96th Battery, Royal Field Artillery, died at Boulogne from wounds received five days earlier during the fighting near Ypres.

The son of Colonel H.F. Blair, Royal (Late Bengal) Lancers, he came from a staunch military family with both his grandfathers having served, and close to sixty members of his family being involved in the Great War. He was educated at Tunbridge Castle and Wellington College, and attended the Royal Military Academy in 1899, being gazetted to the Royal Artillery in August of 1900.

He served in Ireland, was an instructor at the Royal Military College in Canada from 1906 to 1911, and then served for two years in India, returning home when the Great War broke out. He went to join the fighting in France in October of 1914 with the 85th Brigade, and had been commanding the 96th Battery for only two days before being grievously wounded.

William, from London, was 33 years old and married with a baby son.