Men of the Time, eleventh edition/Balfour, John Blair
BALFOUR, The Right Hon. John Blair, Q.C., is the son of the late Rev. Peter Balfour, minister of Clackmannan, by Jane Ramsay, daughter of Mr. John Blair of Perth. He was born at Clackmannan in 1837, and was educated at Edinburgh Academy and the University of Edinburgh. He was called to the Scottish Bar in 1861, and was appointed Solicitor-General for Scotland on the formation of Mr. Gladstone's Administration in 1880. Mr. Balfour entered Parliament as M.P. for the counties of Clackmannan and Kinross, in November, 1880, in the place of the late Mr. W. P. Adam, on the appointment of the latter as Governor of Madras. In Aug., 1881, he was appointed Lord Advocate for Scotland in the room of Mr. McLaren, who had been raised to the judicial bench. Mr. Balfour has been twice married—first, in 1869, to Lilias Oswald, daughter of Lord Mackenzie (a Judge of Session of Scotland); and, secondly, in 1877, to the Hon. Marianne Eliza Wellwood-Moncreiff, youngest daughter of Lord Moncreiff, Lord Justice Clerk of Scotland.