| John Blair | |
| Birth Name: | William John Blair |
| Birth Date: | 1955 3, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | Woking, Surrey, England |
| Professor of Medieval History and Archaeology | |
| Parents: | Claude Blair |
| Sub Discipline: | Early medieval English history |
| Alma Mater: | Brasenose College, Oxford |
| Thesis Title: | Landholding, Church and Settlement in Surrey before 1300 |
| Thesis Year: | 1983 |
| Workplaces: | The Queen's College, Oxford |
William John Blair, (born 4 March 1955) is an English historian, archaeologist, and academic, who specialises in Anglo-Saxon England. He is Emeritus Professor of Medieval History and Archaeology at the University of Oxford, and a Fellow of The Queen's College, Oxford. He gave the 2013 Ford Lectures at the University of Oxford.
Blair was born on 4 March 1955 in Woking, Surrey, England.[1] His father was Claude Blair, a museum curator and "one of the foremost authorities on historic European metalwork, especially arms and armour",[2] and his mother was Joan Mary Greville Blair (née Drinkwater).
Blair was educated at St John's School, Leatherhead, a private school in Leatherhead, Surrey. He then studied at Brasenose College, Oxford, graduating with a first-class Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1976. He remained at Brasenose College to undertake postgraduate research and completed his Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degree in 1983.[3] His doctoral thesis was titled Landholding, Church and Settlement in Surrey before 1300: this subsequently became the basis of his first book, Early Medieval Surrey (1991).[4]
During his doctoral research, Blair was a Junior Research Fellow at Brasenose College, Oxford. In 1981, he was elected a Fellow of The Queen's College, Oxford. Since then, he has been a praelector and tutor in history at the college. On 1 October 2006, he was awarded a Title of Distinction by the University of Oxford as Professor of Medieval History and Archaeology.[5] He retired in October 2020 and was made an emeritus fellow of The Queen's College.[6]
Blair gave the 2013 Ford Lectures at the University of Oxford.[7] The lecture series was titled "Building the Anglo-Saxon Landscape".[8]
On 5 May 1983, Blair was elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA).[9] He was elected Fellow of the British Academy (FBA) in 2008.[10]
In 2005, Blair married Kanerva Heikkinen. Together they have two children; one daughter and one son.
. John Blair (historian) . 1994 . Anglo-Saxon Oxfordshire . Oxford, Stroud and Dover, NH . Oxfordshire Books and Alan Sutton Publishing . 978-0-7509-0147-5.