Blencowe William 1887

William Blencowe [4248]

22 Nov 1887-16 Sep 1951

Father Nm: William Nathaniel Blencowe [2484] born 1850 Buckingham D.Q mother Alters . died 1899 Nottingham : Oldest Known Ancestor;John Blencowe 1806-1847 Buckingham.

Mother Nm: Hannah Butcher 1852 Buckingham-1901.

Marriage Dt:1918 to Mary Winifred Frost at Northampton

K comments: Sisters husband Malcolm Nash served with the RFA

Spouse comments: Mary Winifred Frost 1893-1976

Children: Joan Winifred 1918-1962

(Research):GR[B] Northampton Dec 1887 1891 Census*prob GR[D] Daventry vol 3b p 373 Sept 1951.

1901 Census With widowed Mother and sister

Fred Spatcher 26
Lizzie Spatcher 27
Elsie Spatcher 5
William Spatcher 4
Fred Spatcher 3
Annie Spatcher 1
Alice Blencowe 48
William Blencowe 13
Alice Blencowe 16

1911 Census 15 Stanley St. Semilong, Northampton.

Blencowe William Boarder Shoemaker 1888 23


Gallery	Northampton Regiment

WW1

Blencowe William, 1888, Northants, Private, 4822, 70010, 5876069, 3^rd Reserve and 2^nd Bn. Northamptonshire Regiment.

1915

Oct. William volunteered and joined the regular army and probably initially was placed in the 3^rd Reserve Battalion of the Northampton Regiment at Gillingham (Kent).

1916

Sept. William landed in France. Sent overseas as a reinforcement no doubt for the 2^nd Bn. Northants of the 24^th Brigade 8^th Division.
Sept-14^th Oct. William joined the 2^nd Bn. in the Bethune area about 40 km south-west of Ypres. The period up to the 14^th spent time in trenches and billeted at Fouquereuil. ⁴Casualties for the period 12 men killed.
15^th Oct. Moved to Picardy Region. 2^nd Bn. entrained at Fouquereuil. for Pont Remy where they detrained and marched to billets at Lemieux. On the 16^ththe battalion boarded motor lorries they travelled via Amiens and Corbie to Ville where they then marched to Sandpits Camp near Meaulte.⁴
19^th Oct. Into Needle and Penn trenches Guedecourt .⁴
23^rd Oct. Bn. attacked Mild Trench and captured it.⁴Two men were killed in this action.
25^th Oct. The enemy severely bombarded the Bn. in the trenches.⁴Causing 15 men to be killed.
26-30^th Oct. In trenches continuation of bombardment and in this period 9 men killed.^4,5 On the 30^th the Bn. was relieved and returned to Sandpits Camp.⁴
7^th Nov. Relieved the 5^th Scottish Rifles in Bennett, Antelope German trenches just east of Les Boeufs. On the was relieved by 1^st Sherwood Foresters moved to and spent the 9^th at Ox and Bovril trenches until relived by 2^nd Rifle Brigade.⁴ Five men killed in this spell.⁵
15^th Nov. Bn moved into trenches just north of Les Boeufs. On the 16th heavy shelling of the trenches kills 5 men.^4,5
20^th Nov. The Bn. moved back in the line 80 km to the south of Abbeville in the Somme. Entrained for Oisemont and then marched on 21^st to billets at Andainville. On the 22^nd the Bn. marched to Villers Campsart where they billeted until Christmas.⁴

1917

4^th Mar. Attack on Moislans Ridge. The 2^nd Bn. took part in an attack near the village of Bouchavesnes during operations to capture ground on the Moislans Ridge. Casualties were huge with 67 men being killed in this attack. Before the Bn. was relieved by the 2^nd Devons at 03:00 hrs on the 5^th Mar. six more men were killed.^4,5
11-15^th Mar. Trenches. The 2^nd Bn. relieved the 2^ndBerks in the North Bouchavesnes trenches and on the 11, 12^th carried out work on the trenches (the weather was very bad) by the 13^th the front that had been abandoned was regained and consolidated. On the 15^th relieved by the East Lancs.⁴
2^nd Apr. Moved to the outpost at Heudicourt 8 km to the north-east of Moislans.⁴
6^th Apr. The Bn. moved to a line from Fins-Gouzeacourt Rd and map reference 57 SE W12 C (2.5 km west of Villers Guislan). This was followed by spells in trenches before Gouzeacourt until the 15^th Apr. thereafter in billets at Sorel-le-Grand until the 24^th of April. (see trench map).⁴
23^rd-24^th May. In the evening The Bn. relieved the 2^nd Middlesex and 2^nd Devons in the line. in front of Villers Guislan. The Bn front extended from map ref. X11 a.45.50 to X4 a.1.4. Enemy Artillery heavy on our posts and on the village. The diary mentions nothing else but Casualties very high 7 killed 23rd 5 on the 24th we presume from shelling.⁴
27^th Jul. The 2^nd Bn. was in the line at Zouave Wood in their last tour in the line before preparing for the offensive on 31^st July 1917.⁴
Zouave Wood sector. The battalion continued to hold the line, suffering spasmodic bombardment. At about 14.30 hrs, battalion headquarters were hit and an 8″ shell pitched straight into the mess. One Officer killed and three were wounded. The commanding officer was wounded but remained at duty.
In the evening the battalion was relieved by the 1^stWorcester’s and moved into the deep dugouts in Ritz trench.⁴
31^stJul. Wounded at The Battle of Pilckem (Third Battle of Ypres). The allied troops climbed out of their trenches along the whole front line, from Boesinghe in the North to Le Gheer in the South. The 24^th Brigade attacked (some 11 km south of Pilckem Ridge) and advanced from an area close to and between the hamlet Hooge (on Menin Road ) and the infamous Railway Wood, and reached their objectives some distance more northeast of these (between the (now gone) railroad Ypres-Roeselare (Roulers) and Menin Road.
The 2^nd Bn. Northants and the 24^th Brigade attacked at zero hour with two Brigades, the 24^th Brigade (consisting of the 1^st Worcesters, the 2^nd Bn., 2nd East Lancashire’s and 1^st Sherwood Foresters) the 1st Worcesters and 2^nd Bn. advanced to their first objective. The enemy’s first line was quickly taken (the Germans had adopted the scheme of defence-in-depth, which consisted of a thinly defended front line of machine-gun outposts and strongly more heavily defended support line) and the British pushed forward about one mile before meeting much stiffer resistance. Later in the afternoon the advance was stopped and pushed back in places by a carefully coordinated counter-attack by specially trained troops.¹
10^th Aug. Reported as wounded by Northampton Mercury Newspaper.
Invalided home William was retained in England until transported later to India where he was still serving on the Afghan frontier in 1920.²

1919

Sent to Afghan frontier with 2^nd Northamptonshire’s.
Postcard Camp Ali Masjid In the Late Afghan War 1919

The Third Anglo-Afghan War (also referred to as the Third Afghan War) began on 6^th May 1919 and ended with an armistice on 8^th August 1919. It was a minor tactical victory for the British. For the British, the Durand Line was reaffirmed as the political boundary between the Emirate of Afghanistan and British India and the Afghans agreed not to foment trouble on the British side. In the aftermath, the Afghans were able to resume the right to conduct their own foreign affairs as a fully independent state.³

Sources

Ypres And The Great War by Simon Farr.
National Roll of the Great War 1914-1918.
Wikipedia.
The War Diary of the 2nd Bn. Northamptonshire Regt.
The CWGC database of deaths by the battalion at www.hut-six.com.

Medals

The Medal Card shows just the 1914-18 campaign medals. The National Roll of the Great war states that William was sent to Afghanistan in 1919 and was awarded the India General Service Medal with clasp Afghanistan NW Frontier. The medals were sent in 1919 to 16 Kinburn Place, Northampton. William wounded at Ypres in Aug 1917 would have been entitled to wear a single wound stripe.

After the War

William married in 1918 to Mary Winifred Frost at Northampton their only daughter was born in 1918. They lived in Northampton until his death.

1921 onwards

This record for William indicates he served after 1921 under a new Regimental Number, not day and month correct in his given dob but this record makes him 3 years younger perhaps to ensure he could serve longer.