The firm of Thomas Blair & Son has a long history dating back over one and a half centuries, pre-dating even the local paper 'The Dunfermline Press'.It is not known when Thomas Blair was born, but the Blair family came from CairneyhillVillage as had generations before them and young Thomas was originally taught the skill of handloom weaving before becoming a Solicitor in later years.
Mr Thomas Blair began as a Solicitor (then known as a ‘Writer’) around the middle of the 19th Century and his office was situated close to the ‘Glen Gates,’an area which was then considered the centre of Dunfermline’s Business and Commerce.The photograph to the left shows the Kirkgate, an area close to the gates of PittencrieffPark. Or ‘The Glen’.
The Kirkgate, Dunfermline in the 1860s
In1897, the year of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, Thomas Blair died, leaving his son David, whom he had assumed as a partner to the firm now named Thomas Blair & Son.A well respected and successful business man, David Deas Blair became a Burgh Chamberlain in 1900.Not long after, around the time of Queen Victoria’s death (1901), the expanding firm, now in need of larger premises, relocated to our present office at 35 East Port, although it was then named Viewfield Place. You can still see ‘Viewfield Place’ etched on the corner stone of our office today, as too the many custom made features required by an expanding legal firm, still on view in our office premises today.
David Blair
'THE HONEST LAWYER' - Taken from the Dunfermline Press 25/02/1983
A Solicitor know throughout Dunfermline as "the honest lawyer," Mr Thomas Blair, died this week in Milesmark Hospital. His death followed a short illness.
A senior partner in the law firm of Thomas Blair & Son, 35 east Port Street, Dunfermline, Mr Blair was one of Scotland's oldest practising lawyers, beginning his career shortly after the First World War. He contiued working during his illness from hospital.
A native of Dunfermline, Mr Blair joined his Grandfather's firm of Thomas Blair & Son, in 1923. Both his father, David Deas Blair, and his brother, William Gibson Blair, made their careers within the Firm.
Apart from his work within the law firm, Mr Blair was actively involved in Dunfermline Town Council, with his election as a Councillor in 1933 for Ward 11, and his eventual progression to Convener of the Cleansing and Gas Committees, and to becoming a Bailie in 1939.
A former Clerk and Treasurer to the Guildry of dunfermline, Mr Blair was also Chairman of the Court of Referees for Dunfermline and Cowdenbeath, a Trustee of Dunfermline and Cowdenbeath, a Trustee of Dunfermline Trustee Savings Bank and a director of Rosyth Building and Estates Company.
In 1918, he was awarded the Military Cross for bravery, after serving initially as a Private in the Black Watch Regiment in the First World War, and later as a Lieutenenat, He continued his military career as Major in charge of a Yorkshire battery.
Mr Blair obtained a commission in the Royal Artillery, before joining their Highland Division as a Major during the Second World War.
Tom and Willie Blair with Office Staff
Gala Day 1960
The Present
Since 1985 the firm of family Solicitors has been in the capable hands of the successful partnership of Malcolm Slora LL.B., Dip.L.P., N.P. & Denise Slora LL.B., Dip.L.P., N.P.,
Together they strive to deliver the very best service to all of their clients, creating a happy working environment for a dynamic team of employees, who share their enthusiam for their traditional values and personailised service.
