Charles Gilbert Blane was the third son of Hugh Seymour Blane, 2nd Baronet, and grandson of Sir Gilbert Blane, the Scottish physician who instituted health reform in the Royal Navy. He was baptised at Great Hadham (now called Much Hadham) in Hertfordshire on 5 December 1837.
According to Hart's Army List (1859), Captain Charles Gilbert Blane of the 23rd Welsh Fusiliers 'served at the siege of Sebastopol in 1855, including the attack on the Redan on the 18th June, and was wounded in the trenches on 30th June (Medal and Clasp). Served in the Indian campaign of 1857-58, including the siege and capture Lucknow and operations across the Goomtee under Outram (Medal and Clasp).'
He appears on the 1871 census living at The Pastures, a house at Mickleover in Derbyshire with his mother Eliza Blane, a Baronet's widow, and his elder brother Arthur Rodney Blane, an officer in the Royal Navy. He was 33 years old at the time of the census.
Charles Gilbert Blane died on 4 April 1874, aged 36, at The Pastures, and was buried on 11 April 1874 at Mickleover. He left effects valued at £35,000.
Photographed by Camille Silvy on 31 May 1861.