Walter Hutchinson Blair was born on May 6, 1890, in Wilmington, North Carolina. Blair was a civil servant (tax collector and register of deeds) who helped lead a movement to combat profiteering and overinflation in food, clothing, and housing in post-war (World War I) Wilmington. During World War I, Blair served with Company E, 56th Pioneer Infantry, and arrived in France about two months before the armistice. He received an honorable discharge on January 14, 1919. Blair died in Carolina Beach (New Hanover County) on August 30, 1961.