Blencowe Albert E 1893

Albert Edward Blencowe [4439]
1893-1977

Father Nm: Charles (Leonard) Blencowe [3087] born 2 May 1869 died 1956 Whitchurch Shrops; Oldest Known Ancestor William Blincow abt 1702 Bicester.

Mother Nm: Margaret Winifred O’Hara [10799] 1868-1948.

Marriage Dt:1920 to Cicely Challenor, Whitchurch S. Vol. 6a Page, 2034.

click to enlarge

K comments: WW1: Albert Edward was one of six brothers who served. Thomas William with the South Staffs, Harry and Francis with the Kings Shropshire LI, Percy Driver RHA died of wounds 1917, and George with the Kings Royal Rifle Corps.

WW2: Nephew Dennis James was killed at Arnhem in 1944 whilst with the RAF. Niece Justina served with the WAAF, Nephews John Leonard was with the Manchester Regt. , Robert Harry was a Sergeant in the RAF and was later awarded an MBE. , Francis Jesse was with the Royal Artillery, and Bryan Henry served with Royal Army Ordnance Corps.

Son Ivor Eric served as a Sapper with the Royal Engineers just after WW2.

Spouse comments: Cicely Challenor 25.6.1895 died 1958, Chester,

Children: Envis 1921, Gerald Edward 1927, Ivor Eric 1929-1954

(Research): GR[B] Whitchurch Sept 1893 JD

Birth

12 June 1893

1901 Census 43 Yardington St, Whitchurch
  1. Blencowe Albert Son 7
  2. Blencowe Charles Head Baker & Confectioner 31
  3. Blencowe Charles Son 6
  4. Blencowe Francis Son 5
  5. Blencowe George Son 3
  6. Blencowe Harry Son 1
  7. Blencowe Catherine Dau 8
  8. Blencowe Margaret Wife Bread Maker 31
  9. Blencowe Percy Son 4
  10. Blencowe William Son 9
1911 Census 30 Bargates The Gray Hound Whitchurch
  1. Blencowe Albert Son Apprentice Plumber 17
  2. Blencowe Charles Head Baker 42
  3. Blencowe Margaret Wife 43
  4. Blencowe Charles Son Errand Boy Saddlers 16
  5. Blencowe Frank Son Post Office Telegraph Messenger 15
  6. Blencowe George Son 13
  7. Blencowe Harry Son M 1899 Whitchurch 12
  8. Blencowe Margaret Wife 43
  9. Blencowe Percy Son 14
  10. Blencowe William Son Labourer Iron Foundry 18
KSLI

King’s Shropshire Light Infantry

WW1

Blencowe Albert Edward, 1893, Whitchurch, Corporal, 1746, 200318, 4th Bn., 6th Bn. King’s Shropshire Light Infantry.

Synopsis

Albert Edward Blencowe was to volunteer and join the King’s Shropshires Territorial Army before the war and for 4 years nearly he had a fairly easy war because he was based in the Far East on Garrison duties. However, in 1917 he was thrown into the fierce battles of the western front and fought hard until at least June of 1918 possibly later. While we have few details of his service his unique award of the Bligny Cockade and actual war medals held by a collector give us a better understanding of his service. He was awarded a Territorial Long Service medal further supporting the details of his service. After the war in 1920, he continued to serve, marrying Cicely Challenor from Cheshire, their first child Envis was born in 1921 in Whitchurch. By Envis birth, he may have already been in Ireland with the KSLI and his regiment suffered casualties in the Irish War of Independence. The second child Eric Ivor Blencowe being born in 1927 suggests that Albert was with his regiment in Ireland and Germany in the army of occupation duties, returning home in about 1926. After the army service, the couple and their children are found in Ellesmere Port until Cicely’s and his death in 1968 and 1977.

1913-1917

Albert probably enlisted in Feb.1913 into the 4th KSLI based on his regimental number (source Paul Nixon). Thus he was serving in the Territorials at the outbreak of the war.

It is highly likely then that Albert accompanied the battalion when it went to the Far East in October 1914.

Albert spent a somewhat idyllic time in the Far East (Rangoon, Singapore and Hong Kong) with the 1/4th KSLI but the reality of the war eventually came in early 1917 when the battalion was sent to the United Kingdom for redeployment to the Western Front.

Timeline of 1/4th Battalion Territorial Force between 1914-1917

04.08.1914 Stationed at Shrewsbury attached to the Welsh Division and then moved to Cardiff.
04.09.1914 Moved to Sittingbourne, Kent.
29.10.1914 Embarked for India from Southampton as part of the Middlesex Brigade of the Home Counties Division arriving at Bombay.
10.02.1915 Deployed to Singapore at Andaman Isles.
April 1915 Two companies deployed to Hong Kong.
13.04.1917 Concentrated at Singapore.
19.04.1917 Arrived at Colombo, Sri Lanka.
29
1917
The Operations on the Ancre, The Second Battle of the Scarpe, The Battle of Arleux, The Second Battle of Passchendaele, The action of Welsh Ridge, The Cambrai operations.
04.02.1918 Transferred to the 56th Brigade of the 19th Division;
1918
The First Battle of Arras, The Battle of Albert, The Battle of the Scarpe, The Battle of the Canal du Nord, The Battle of the Cambrai, The Pursuit to the Selle, The Battle of the Sambre, The Passage of the Grand Honelle.
11.11.1918 Ended the war Bry west of Bavai, France.

1917
  • 29 Jul. Returning via Ceylon and South Africa the battalion was deployed immediately to France in July 1917, where it was attached to the 63rd (Royal Naval) Division near Arras.

  • 31st Jul.- 6th Nov. Third Battle of Ypres. Moved to the Ypres Salient to take part in the great Passchendaele Offensive and suffered 130 casualties on its first real day in action. “

    “The 1/4 Bn KSLI were in reserve and at 1.30 pm orders were received to move forward – A & D Coys were to attack Source Trench and fill a gap in the line between Source Farm and Varlet Farm; B Coy went to Kronprinz Farm to reinforce Canadian units; C Coy remained at Albatross Farm. The attack on Source Trench went over but was held up by machine gun fire causing heavy casualties. Although they failed to achieve their objectives they did manage to plug the gap. The KSLI Regimental History notes that the men showed great steadfastness and that their behaviour should ‘set at rest any uneasiness that may have existed in the minds of the higher authorities concerning the reliability of a Territorial battalion, straight from the East, under fire for the first time in France under trying circumstances’.

    B Coy meanwhile, at Kronprinz Farm, was to reinforce the 5th Cape Mounted Rifles, a South African unit that had suffered heavy losses. As they moved up they too came under heavy fire causing many casualties but they managed to get into position and establish contact with A & D Coys on their left. During the rest of the night, the line was consolidated. The battalion remained in this position until relieved by Nelson Battalion after dark on 31 October. Total casualties were: Officers 1 KIA (Lieutenant CS Coakley CWGC) 8 wounded; ORs 21 KIA, 106 wounded and 1 missing.”

    1/4th KSLi positions Varlet and Source Farms in attack on Passchendaele, NLS overlay map on modern roads

    Note Albert was possibly wounded in this attack.

  • 10 August. Admitted to 2nd General Hospital, Le Havre.

Note: Albert was wounded or got very sick as he has one medical record that shows he was at one point admitted to the 2nd General Hospital in Le Havre.

2nd General Hospital Le Havre was situated in the Casino Lechin
1918
  • 10th-11th Apr. Messines. The battalion fought around Messines during the great German Spring offensive of 1918.

  • 6th Jun. The capture of Bligny Hill. After Messines the battalion was then moved southwards to support French operations in the Soissons region; its greatest moment came in the capture of Bligny Hill on 6th June 1918, for which feat the battalion—reduced to company strength by then—was awarded the Croix de Guerre Avec Palme.

Bligny Hill map
Location of Bligny in the Soissons Sector.

The medal Roll for Albert shows the following sequence of Regimental units for Albert was

  1. 4th Bn. KSLI.

  2. Infantry Base Depot.

  3. 6th SLI.

The periods are not dated so based on the evidence of the Croix de Guerre it looks to me what we have is sometime after 6th June 1918 Albert spent four spells with the 6th SLI. Possibly periods of attachment as the 6th was a non-TA unit and the BWM and Vic. Medals are definitely awarded on the TF sheet ie 4th SLI.

 

Sources
  1. K.S.L.I. History.

  2. Article was written by Graham Wilson about Albert E Blencowe and The Croix de Guerre.

  3. BFA database and Find my Past website

Medals

The Photograph of Albert Edward Blencowe’s actual medals and Bligny cockade, photo was provided by the owner Graham Wilson who has also written the history of the Croix de Guerre awarded to the KSLI regiment.

“Shown in the first illustration are the First World War medals of 200318 Corporal Albert E. Blencowe, 1/4th Battalion, King’s Shropshire Light Infantry (KSLI), consisting of the British War Medal 1914-1920, the Victory Medal and the Territorial Force War Medal 1914-1919, all named to Albert Blencowe as a member of ‘1/4 KSLI’. Also displayed with Blencowe’s medals is a cockade made of green and red striped ribbon. This is the ‘Bligny Cockade’ of 1/4th KSLI, a hard-earned distinction from the Great War and commemorates a rare unit award of the Croix de Guerre 1914-1918 to a British unit.” source Graham Wilson

Croix-De-Guerre-Francis-Browne
This is the Croix-De-Guerre awarded to the Battalion

4th (Territorial) Battalion KSLI: Bligny and the Croix de Guerre.

Croix de Guerre medal and ribbon. In June 1918, the 4th (Territorial) Battalion of the K.S.L.I. was an awarded an unusual distinction. The “unit award” in the form of the French Croix-de-Guerre Avec Palme for its gallantry in seizing the important Bligny Hill. The 4th (Territorial) Battalion of the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry had an interesting war career by the summer of 1918. Mobilised in August 1914, it spent three years in the Far East on the type of routine imperial garrison duty designed to free Regular battalions for more active war service. Its stay in Rangoon, Singapore, and Hong Kong was a much more pleasant experience than that of the Regular and War Service battalions of the K.S.L.I.

“Territorial Force War Medal

His medal entitlement includes the Territorial Force War Medal (TFWM), the qualifying criteria for which were quite prescriptive. To qualify for the medal a soldier had to either be a serving member of the Territorial Force (TF) on 4 August 1914 OR a former member of the TF who had completed four or more years’ service prior to 4 August 1914 and rejoined the TF prior to 30 September 1914 AND volunteered prior to 30 September 1914 to service outside the United Kingdom OR actually served outside the United Kingdom between 4 August 1914 and 11 November 1918 AND was not eligible for the 1914 Star or the 1914-15 Star. The TFWM, in fact, replaces the 1914 Star and 1914-15 Star for members of the TF who served outside the UK between 4 August 1914 and 31 December 1915 but did not serve in an operational theatre covered by those stars.

“1918 Absent Voter Lists

“Address as 30 Bargates, Whitchurch (it spells his name incorrectly as Blencoe & regimental number incorrect 220318).

“Given the above information, it is possible that Albert stayed in the KSLI after the war and his periods with the 6th Bn. was this service. Note there is no discharge date on his records.

After the War

1921 Census

 

Albert and Cicely were not found in the 1921 census but their daughter Envis born in Whitchurch in the 3Q of the year. This supports that Albert was serving with the Shropshire Light Infantry probably in Ireland during the uprising. From Wikipedia is this history of KSLI and its very likely that Albert spent some of these years as per this history

Between the wars

On 7 September 1919, during the Irish War of Independence following the war in Europe, the KSLI suffered the British Army’s first casualties at the hands of the IRA when a detachment from a unit stationed at Fermoy was ambushed on a church parade by an IRA unit under the command of Liam Lynch; one soldier was killed, four wounded and the rest disarmed by the motor-borne raiders. After the failure of a local coroner’s inquest to return a murder verdict on the dead man, the next day 200 soldiers attacked businesses belonging to members of the inquest jury in an unofficial reprisal.[12] In 1921, the regiment was renamed The King’s Shropshire Light Infantry.[2]

After its Irish posting, the Second Battalion was moved away in December 1922 to Tidworth. A further journey followed to Minden Barracks in Cologne in 1924 as part of the garrison of the demilitarised Rhineland, and across the river in January 1926 to Wiesbaden, where its band played the regular round of paid civilian engagements as well as appearing at both the 1924 and 1925 Empire Exhibitions at Wembley. Bandmaster Burnell was the last to conduct the National Anthem before the withdrawal of British troops from the area in November 1927. The Battalion returned to Aldershot

1929 Electoral Register

Living at 7 Dunkirk Lane Ellesmere Port

 

1939 census

7 Dunkirk Lane Ellesmere Port

Albert E Buncowe 12 Jun 1893 Male Platelayer Married 50 1
Cicely Buncowe 25 Jun 1895 Female Unpaid Domestic Duties Married 50 2
Ervis Doyle (Buncowe) 02 Sep 1921 Female Acetylene Welder Single 50 3
Ivor E Buncowe 07 Sep 1929 Male At School Single 50 5
William C Brown 13 Dec 1915 Male Excavator Driver-Travelling Married 50 6
Gwilym F Matthews 11
1958 widowed


Tragically Cecily was killed when she and Albert were hit by a motor vehicle on Monday 13 October. This report from Chester Chronicle 18 October 1958. Note son gerald is a witness to his mothers death at the mortuary.

1977 Death age 84 years

Vale Royal, Cheshire, Volume: 33, Page: 1104.

Gallery

Note: there are 2 service records for this man that exist that are not shown in this gallery for copyright reasons.

We survived – some of A Company of the 4th Battalion of the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry in 1918. These are some of the survivors of the Battle of Bligny

The Casino used as No 2 General Hospital Le Havre (IWM Q10560)
2 General Hospital Ward 3 Quai DEscale Q10557 10th -13th Sept. Albert transferred to No 2 General Hospital Le Havre, condition to severe to be transported. Died 13 Sept 1918 cause GSW Spine Nephritis
4yh KSLI 1918 Officers and NCO’s
KSLI Soldier