Blencowe Thomas Charles 1894

Thomas Charles Blencowe  [8770]

 

1894-1960

Father Nm: Charles Blencowe [3649] was born in 1852 Towcester: Oldest Known Ancestor Thomas Blencowe abt 1475 Marston St Lawrence.

Mother Nm: Annie Elizabeth,   b. 1858, Towcester, Northamptonshire, England died 1941 Lynchburgh

 

 

Marriage Dt:1922 (from the census).

K comments: Brother James Orpington served with the US Army in WW1. Son Richard Randolph served in WW2 as a Sergeant  in the US Army Air Corps

Cousin Alan Geeding Blencowe served in WW1 with the US Navy

Spouse comments: Isabel Chapman 1893, Charleston North Carolina.

Children: Thomas Charles 1925 and Richard Randolph 1926.

 

Birth 30th May 1894 (RAF Records)

Born Richland South Carolina

1910 Census Clarke, Virginia Berryville Ward 3, Clarke, Virginia

1. Charles Blencowe M 57y England
2. Annie E Blencowe F 45y England
3. Isabell V Blencowe F 17y Virginia
4. James O Blencowe M 15y Virginia
5. Thomas C Blencowe M 13y Virginia
6. Katherine Blencowe F 11y Virginia
7. Reberta Blencowe F 9 y Virginia

Thomas Charles is the third generation of the family to join the Pharmacy/Druggist business before the war. Great Grandfather Timothy Blencowe (1798-1871 had been a Druggist in the Towcester England. Grandfather Thomas emigrated to Virginia in 1843 and more than likely built up frfom small beginnings a  druggist business .The photo below of Lynchburg C1900 has a druggist store mid-right and I wonder if this is the Blencowes Pharmacy. Thomas Charles’s father Charles and Uncle Frank were listed as members of the Pharmacy Association but as to their qualifications no records if indeed they had any

WW1

Royal Flying Corps	Royal Air Force

WW1

Blencowe Thomas Charles, 1897, Virginia, Dft No 3343, US Army, Canadian Engineers, 2nd Lt. RAF 153152.

Synopsis

An American of British parents who twice fought for the Canadian/British forces in world wars is unusual but add the fact that he continued to live and work in the USA before and between wars make Thomas relatively unique. Thomas started as an Engineer with the Canadians but took a commission and seems to have spent most of WW1 training to be a pilot. No evidence of any combat flying in WW1 but maybe this increased Thomas desire to volunteer to fly again for the Canadians in WW2 which finally was able to make use of that training..

1916-1917

Thomas had registered for the US draft on its first day 5 Jun 1917 and appears in Washington Times in June on a list of men registered with an address etc. Thomas may have decided to have some certainty about being enlisted and went to Canada to seek a role.

1917

• Enlisted with the Canadian Engineers no records other than RAF records refer to previous service as Canadian Engineers and RFC.
• 12^th Dec. Attested at Toronto with the Royal Flying Corps, Occupation Misc Aviator Cadet/Civil Engineer. Claimed at this point to be an American citizen yet no evidence of this and on return from the war states a British citizen.

  

1918

• Jan. The RAF is formed and all RFC service persons transferred.
• 10^th Jul. Discharged from rank Private II to take up temporary Commission.

  

• 11^th Jul. Appointed 2^nd Lieutenant RAF, we do have information indicating he flew several sorties over France. ^{1 3}
• 17^th Aug. Posted to UK from Canada. The RAF records show Flight training at RAF Hucknall No 15 Training Depot School .¹ Some gradings are also recorded.

  

• September. Posted to Belgium as a Scout. Note:In September 1918, several RAF squadrons were active in Belgium as part of the Allied efforts during World War I. These squadrons were primarily involved in reconnaissance, bombing, and support missions. Squadrons in Belgium in 1918.
  1. No. 7 Squadron: Engaged in reconnaissance and artillery spotting missions.
  2. No. 8 Squadron: Focused on tactical reconnaissance.
  3. No. 9 Squadron: Conducted bombing operations.
  4. No. 10 Squadron: Specialized in night bombing.
• 6^th Dec. Transferred to No 3 Flying School.

1919

• 19^th Feb. Transferred to No 9 Training Depot School.
• 28^th Feb. Discharged and stated unemployed ?
• 17^th Mar. Arrival New Brunswick Canada

1919 Interview – Clarke Courier, Volume 51, Number 7, 10 April 1919

Link to newspaper page

Transcript

Thrilling Experiences As a British Aviator
Lleut. Thomas Blencowe Engaged in
Four Rattles, His Plane Being Riddled in One and Injured When It Collapsed Made Record Flight From London to Paris.
Lieut. Thomas Blencowe, of Berryville, a member of the British Royal Flying Corps, who recently returned home following an injury he received when his aeroplane collapsed on the Flanders front before the Armistice was signed, has been giving his friends some vivid descriptions of the life of a “soldier of the air.”

Lieut. Blencowe was engaged in four air battles. In the last of these his plane, which had been riddled by Hun bullets, collapsed in descending when only 50 feet from the ground. His foot was injured by the fall and he is still lame.
Taught English to Fly.
Lieut. Blencowe rapidly developed into a good aviator after joining the Canadian forces. He was made an instructor of the British Flying Camp at Nottingham, Eng, and of the sixty men he taught only three were killed and three were awarded the Military Cross.

Lieut. Blencowe spent the last nine weeks of the war on the Flanders front as a Scout.
Among his companions to England was Lieut. Hinton Hyde, another American boy. who is a cousin of Mr. Thomas Reynolds, of Berryville.
Of the fifteen men in this air corps. only three of them returned to America alive.
Made Record Flight to Paris.
After the Armistice was signed, Lieut. Blencowe acted as pilot in taking British high officials to the Peace Conference. On one of these flights, the trip was made in one hour and 65 minutes, which at that time established the record.
This time has since been reduced.
Lieut. Blencowe said he never knew who his distinguished passengers were.
The aviators would get orders to be ready,the high officials would get into the machines and off they would go without knowing their identity.
Made Effort to Beat Record Flight.
While at Nottingham, Lieut. Blencowe made an effort to beat the altitude record of 30,000 feet. He and a British aviator went up 27,000 feet, when their engine got cold and they had to return to Mother Earth.”It was cold up there.’ he said in describing the trip.
“I do not knowhow cold it was. We had on hip boots and leather coats with raw wool lining, but still we got cold.
The only thing we could see on earth was the cliffs of Dover 85 miles away The clouds obscured the earth. The sensation up there is one of extreme loneliness. You feel like you are shut off from all the world. You can see hardly anything but clouds.”

Dropped Bombs on Railroads

While serving on the Flanders front, Lieut. Blencowe dropped tons of bombs on the German railroads.
He said they could not see these railroads, but they were guided en tirely by maps. These maps were so accurately drawn according to longitude and latitude and that an aviator, by knowing the speed of his plane and the velocity of the wind, could easily come within ten feet of his mark. He said he never knew whether he made any direct hits, as the clouds often blocked the view of the earth.
Fought for 25 Minutes in Air.
On one of these bombing expeditions, German aeroplanes outnum-
-bering the British by two to one, attacked them from above. For 25 minutes they maneuvered and fought in the air. The British broke up the German formation and got away with only a loss of three machines. The Germans lost five machines.
In another air fight, Lieut. Blencowe fired 1200 rounds of ammunition, and said he does not know whether he made any hits.
This was the time his own machine was riddled
Lieut, Blencowe, as a scout, would go up in his machine and “sit on the clouds,” as the aviators call it, and watch the troop movements below. He said a small white cloud would act as a “smoke screen.”
The avia-tor would circle around this cloud and now and then dart over the edge and get a view of the ground below.
He also said other aviators would hide over these clouds and pounce upon enemy aircraft making for the British lines.
Says Aerial Navigation Is here.
“It’ will be only a few years now when we will have aerial navigation,” said Lieut. Blencowe.
“Wewill be carrying passengers and express from New York to San Francisco in two days within the next few years. England now has passenger-carrying machines.
These great airships have a wing length of 147 feet. They carry 25 passengers.
The fare is now too high to permit their general use.
“A man cannot stay in the air more than six or seven hours.
Hegets more or less nauseated and drowsiness grips him.
An aviator who has been in the air many hours will sleep anywhere when he lands.
So when they get the coast-to-coast air line, it will be necessary to have a landing station at St. Louis or Chicago for the passengers to spend the night.

Notes

1. No. 135 Squadron Royal Flying Corps was formed on 1 March 1918 at RAF Hucknall, Nottinghamshire in the training role. It was intended to train on the De Havilland DH.9 from September 1918 and to move to France in October 1918 but in a major re-organisation of squadrons after the Royal Air Force was formed the squadron disbanded on 4 July 1918 without becoming operational.
2. There was no Canadian Air Force in WW1 it was formed in 1920, so Canadian men served with the British RFC, RNAS and later when amalgamated the RAF.

Sources

1. RAF Record Title Name Blencowe, Thomas Charles 31-05-1894, Citable Reference AIR 76/42/184.
2. Wikipedia.
3. London Gazette 16^th Aug. 1918, Page 9579.

Medals

RAF Records record no medals but do record service counting towards medal entitlement he should at least earned the BWM. Later accounts of flying missions over France in WW2 then he was entitled to the campaign medals below.

After the War

Charles returned to Canada initially he was recorded on the ship Minnedosa travelling from Liverpool to arriving 17 Mar 1919 at St John, New Brunswick. he describes himself as a British citizen, a student and intent on going to USA. Shortly after March 1919, he returned to in Virginia. Not found in 1920 census but states married in 1922 in 1930 Census.

Appears to be with sister and brother in 1921.

1921 Residence: – 1612 Bull, Columbia, South Carolina, USA

1. James O Blencowe – Clerk
2. Thomas C Blencowe Brother – Acid Maker A Agriculture Co

1927

1. James O Blencowe – Salesman, E Morrison Paper Co.
2. Catherine E Blencowe Sister -Stenographer Veterinary Business
3. Charles Blencowe Brother – Pharmacist Capitol Drug Company
4. Residence: – 825 Vernon Avenue Apt 2, Washington, District Of Columbia.

1930 Census Columbia, Richland, South Carolina. Married with two children.

1. Thomas C Blencowe M 34 Virginia, Occupation-Auto Industry field representative
2. Isabelle C Blencowe F 37 North Carolina
3. Thomas C Blencowe M 5 South Carolina
4. Richard R Blencowe M 3 South Carolina

Note Thomas states yes to Q. Have you served in the Military and states WW1

1932

Richard Blencowe; see his page tells how his parents divorced in this year and that he only saw his father a few times after that..

1940 Census

Family in Columbia, Richland, South Carolina

1. Isabel C Blencowe M 47 North Carolina
2. Thomas C Blencowe M 15 South Carolina
3. Richard R Blencowe M 13 South Carolina

Thomas is living in Maryland at this time we think but he isnt located in the 1940 census so is whereabouts unknown

From American Legion records .

Blencowe, Thomas C. Born: 1894, Clarke County, VA Died: 1960, Towson, MD

Military Service: Royal Canadian Air Force, World War I.

Thomas Charles Blencowe’s family operated a drug store in Berryville in the early 1900s at the same location housing the Berryville Pharmacy today. During World War I, he was a second lieutenant and a pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force and flew several missions over France. After the war, he settled in Columbia, South Carolina where he was a pilot for a commercial aviation group. In 1935, he moved to Towson, Maryland where he was an executive with the Southern Bell Telephone Company.

WW2 Draft 1942

The image of the draft card highlights that by 1942 he was working at Duke Power Co in Belmont N. Carolina. It also is interesting that Thomas Charles understates his age by three years perhaps to get into the young man’s draft.

Death 1960 age 66 years

Towson MD.

Gallery

There are 6 records in the National Archives for this man. For copyright reasons, they cannot be re-published.

Postscript