The History of Blencowe service goes back to Adam de Blencow of course the 14th Century founder of the Blencowe name . While records are harder to find for Blencowes in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries there are some.
The 19th century is when we see Blencowe men appearing more regurlay in service records . We do know that Blencowe’s served in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 but just a few later with the American Civil war many more men are to to be found.
The type of service depended to a large extent on the social structure of the Blencowe’s as they evolved into labouring, skilled, trade and land owning classes.
Land Owners
The land owner was not likely to be serving except possibly the Civil wars in Britain and USA . However but their sons who were 2nd or further down the line of inheritance a commission as an Officer was an option.
Much like the Church it offered a life long career, pension and involved a full support system such as training, housing etc . We see many examples of this in the 19th Century in Gt Britain but the empire and USA was different and generally the Commission obtained on a meritocracy in general.
Skilled Men
Similarly until the major world wars skilled men would not generally be employed in service unless specific skills were needed that could not be contracted out.
Consequently the Army and Navy developed early on good training for non skilled men for artillery skills but not for skills like Baking, Cooking and Tailoring. this tended to only come into when an army was overseas and at war. The Navy on the other hand needed mechanical skills like engine mechanics, fitters and turners who at sea were needed to replace the outsourced skills that could have been employed on land
Tradesmen
Tradesmen typically would not serve , outside of the world wars rarely. In wartime procurement and logistics skills were required with the Services to ensure effective supplies and delivery systems
Labourers
By far the largest number of Blencowe’s that served in this period were labouring class. The “Day labourer” suffered a wildly unpredictable income stream , being employed for one day only and having to “turn up” the next morning to learn if there was work.
Therefore men with families were easily tempted by recruitment teams to “take the Kings shilling” and sign up for extended period of service. Six, Nine and Twelve years being quite the standard term for service committments.
Report
This report is a generated list of men who served Pre WW1. Note this list is a work in progress and will take some time to fully develop. The up to date list is generated on the TNG home page so clicking link below will take you to that TNG Report