John Blencowe (1798, Brackley, Northamptonshire) → Van Diemen’s Land, Tasmania. Contracted by Van Diemen’s Land Company as wheelwright.
A good friend Anne Burton (Nee Blencowe) spent many years researching her family, as well as taking on the voluntary editorship of the Blencowe Family Association Newsletter. She has produced this below, the definitive history of the very first Blencowe to Australia. A magnificent achievement, I think after reading, you will agree.
John Blencowe: Indentured Servant to the Van Diemen’s Land Company
John’s family background in England
Descending from the early Squires of Marston St Lawrence, John’s future should have been bright. His Grandfather Timothy Blencowe (1726-1787) was a gentleman farmer and grazier who in 1747 inherited a lease in Halse from His Grace the Duke of Bridgewater along with ‘all those lands, tenements, hereditaments and premises with their appurtenances in Brackley’, which his father John (1686-1761) had bought from John Taylor. Timothy also held lands in Marston St Lawrence and was recorded in 1771 and 1774 Militia Rolls of Old Brackley and Halse. On his death he was referred to as ‘Timothy Blencowe, Gent of Marston St Lawrence.’ He was buried at St Peters, Brackley.
John’s other Grandfather; William Loveday was also a ‘Gent of Brackley’, who left a substantial inheritance to his children and other relatives.
Timothy had 14 children and although the pickings would have been getting a bit thin by the time John’s father James, the 6th son was setting off from home; James was nevertheless sent off to Oxford apprenticed to Joseph Mayow, haberdasher for seven years from 1 Jan 1779. He returned to Brackley in 1786 and became a mercer in the High Street. This was a time when things were starting to look grim in England. In 1792 James married Thomasine Loveday, however, in 1794, James was declared Bankrupt.
Children of JAMES BLENCOWE and THOMASIN LOVEDAY are:
1 JAMES BLENCOWE, b. 1793, Brackley, Northamptonshire d. June 1793, Brackley.
2 WILLIAM BLENCOWE, b. 1794, Brackley
3 GEORGE BLENCOWE, b. 1796, Brackley d. December 1840.
4 BENJAMIN BLENCOWE, b. 1797, Brackley, d. Aft. 1881
5 JOHN BLENCOWE, b. 1798, Brackley, d. 4 June 1887, One Tree Hill, South Australia.
6 SELINDA BLENCOWE, b. 1800, Brackley.
7 THOMAS BLENCOWE, b. 1803, Brackley, d. 1885, Peckham, Camberwell, London
John was the 5th son of James Blencowe and Thomasin Loveday born in 1798 at Brackley,
Northamptonshire. Thomasin, aged 30, died in 1803 after the birth of her 7th child, Thomas.
John was only 5. Who looked after the children, we can only guess. It was probably Thomasine’s mother Elizabeth Loveday nee Thornton. This is only a guess, but all the children of James and Thomasin who survived to marry and have children have repeated the Loveday name in their families. Of interest also is that John’s eldest brother, William, had a William Loveday Blencowe and a Selinda Thornton Blencowe. One would expect that their circumstances were quite poor as the children grew up. However, they were educated and the boys completed apprenticeships.
An indication of the disruption in the children’s lives after the death of their mother, Thomasin, is that almost without exception they don’t know in which year they were born. This is shown on the Census records of those who remained in England and the varied ages given to John through his time in Australia. We have the benefit of the baptism records as an indication.
When John aged 23 married Mary Drinkwater at Brackley on 28 January 1821, his occupation was described as ‘wheelwright’. On 31 August 1830 John and Mary accompanied by their 3 surviving children, George ( 1824-1907), Thomasine (1827-1909) and John (1830-1898) left England on the ‘Thomas Laurie’ for a new opportunity in Tasmania. They arrived at Launceston on 18 February 1831. John had been engaged as an Indentured Servant by the Van Diemen’s Land Company to work as a wheelwright on a seven year contract. The VDLC was a fine wool company at Circular Head on an isolated northwest tip of Tasmania. We’ll leave their story and set the scene in Tasmania.
The Van Diemen’s Land Company and its Indentured Servants
A brief summary.
The Van Diemen’s Land Company (VDLC)was formed in 1824 by a group of London-based businessmen who proposed to establish a successful wool growing venture on 250, 000 acres in the unexplored territory of the far north western tip of Tasmania (then Van Diemen’s Land) to supply the needs of the British textile industry.
As with all British colonization, no consideration was given to the rights of Aboriginal inhabitants. The Aboriginal population had already fallen dramatically through conflict with Europeans and introduced diseases, and the incidence of reported violent clashes into the interior increased from 1823.
The company’s charter was sealed on 10th November, 1825. Already the search had begun to find the tradesmen and labourers needed to develop the large grant of agricultural land to a financially successful fine wool producing enterprise. Convicts could supply free labour but they had little rural knowledge or mechanical expertise. The Aboriginal natives were difficult to train and would not remain on the settlements. Hence the indentured servant was the most reliable means of maintaining the workforce.
INDENTURED means to be contracted to someone under a written agreement.
A SERVANT is a person in the use of another person.
From 1825 the VDLC began to indenture men, some of them with their wives and families, travelled to Van Diemen’s Land with very few possessions. Among them were builders, shepherds, labourers and blacksmiths, mostly from the poorer rural areas of England and Scotland. These men were to serve the directors of the VLD Co under contract for a set term. In return they were promised passage to the colony, food, housing, and wages.
If, however, that contract was broken, then the repercussions were severe. After a disturbance in October 1827, the convicts were flogged; free men had their wages stopped. With the closest independent magistrate being hundreds of miles away, they had no defence of their personal rites. The complaints from indentured servants were many. Inadequate food rations, no housing on their arrival and, in being treated as equals with the convicts, together with conditions of low pay and low status, diminishment of their self esteem.
What the English owners hadn’t really bargained on was the severe climatic conditions and the almost impenetrable forest and rugged terrain which they encountered. Circular Head appeared to be the most promising place for the new settlement due to a good harbour and plenty of fresh water. Progress was made, land gradually cleared and cultivated, farm buildings erected and roads constructed at the various company camp establishments.
In 1831 the Circular Head camp was chosen to be the Headquarters of the VDLC’s operations. The chief agent, Edward Curr commenced plans for his substantial homestead, Highfield House the sketch from the plans is shown here. Highfield House was completed in 1835 in arguably one of the most stunning locations anywhere in the world.
So enter our family: the Voyage Out
In late August 1830 John and Mary Blencowe accompanied by their 3 surviving children, George (1824-1907), Thomasine (1827-1909) and John (1830-1898), left loved ones and their homeland behind knowing full well they may never return. With the promise of wealth and a new beginning they boarded the ‘Thomas Laurie’ for a new opportunity in Van Diemen’s Land. They arrived over 5 months (172 days) later at Launceston on 18 February 1831, where they cleared customs before sailing on to Circular Head onboard the Friendship a schooner owned by the VDLC.
We are indeed fortunate that the worksite and home of our immigrant family is now an official Historic site. Highfield House is opened daily to the public with historians on site to answer one’s questions. I made good use of this service. The guide looked up John and confirmed his arrival and employment. John had been engaged as an Indentured Servant by the Van Diemen’s Land Company to work as a wheelwright on a seven year contract. John would have been elated to have been handpicked for this opportunity; especially chosen for his education (probably basic literacy), skill, expertise and qualifications of good moral character and conduct. This opportunity presented John and his family an escape from the limited opportunities of a depressed rural England.
The dream was to fall well short of expectations. In reality the indentured servants were shown little respect as they did not pay their own passage and were seen to be either convicts or assisted servants. The guide indicated that in all probability there would have been convicts on the same migrant ship. Although the convicts, whom themselves were selected for their skills and better character, were confined to below deck for all but an hour a day, the conditions on some ships led to violence and sexual abuse – even of children being rampant. How frightening.
The Ship
Perhaps our family was spared such a journey. I have since found excerpts of a diary style account of their trip by the son of John Glover, the artist who painted this picture of the Thomas Lawrie moored in the Tamar River. In his letter to his sister back in England, John Glover Junior does not mention anything untoward occurring.
The British built Thomas Lawrie owned by Thomas Campbell was a wooden three masted barque like most common deep-water cargo-carriers in the early to mid 1800s. The masts would have been fully square rigged except for the stern most one, which would have been fore-and –aft rigged.
John and Mary Blencowe and three children boarded, the Thomas Lawrie on 31 August 1830 and with the Glover family left Gravesend, Kent on 4th September under command of the Master William Langdon. They certainly did not travel to Australia by the conventional route of using the Roaring Forties after rounding the Cape of Good Hope.
The Thomas Lawrie’s passage was a long and arduous one, bad weather preventing the ship leaving the English coast for a full month. As they headed south, Madeira a Portuguese archipelago was sighted on 14th October 1830. They sailed “. . . within 10 miles of Madeira, a beautiful fine day and fairly becalmed, not wind enough to move the vessel one inch. A mode of amusement was soon suggested, the jolly boat was in immediate requisition, a party made up with guns and harpoons to catch dolphins or what not.”
They have followed the west coast of Africa and instead of rounding the Cape of Good Hope have veered east to follow along the east coast of South America. After rounding Cape Horn have sailed north up the coast of Chile and to Valparaiso, the port for Santiago arriving on the 29thOctober, where a boat was put ashore for water and supplies.
John Glover Junior had sought relief from the ennui of the voyage and the boredom of the passengers’ incessant card games by sketching and eventually established a small sketching group aboard ship. He finished several sketches of the islands passed on the voyage which were sent to his sister Mary Bowles in London.
On the 11th December Tristan d’Acunha, a remote volcanic group of islands in the South Atlantic Ocean was sighted. They were now back between Africa and South America sailing south west.
On 10th January 1831 St. Paul’s Island (Moa) in Torres Strait was sighted. They have continued west between north Australia and Papua New Guinea before sailing down the coast of Western Australia (still NSW in 1831). A painting by John senior exists titled “A View between the Swan River and King George’s Sound“ indicating that they rounded near Albany where they would have picked up the Roaring Forties. After a stormy passage across the Great Australian Bight, South Australia they reached Cape Otway, Victoria on the 8th February.
Glover was not particularly well for the remainder of the trip. Affected by the heat, he probably did little more than make a few sketches of islands passed. However sheltering from a storm at King Island in Bass Strait for a full week, where a party was put ashore to hunt game, Glover executed a beautiful watercolour sketch of the island and made a fanciful sketch of the hunting party on shore.
Due to rough weather, any attempt to land a surgeon and twenty labourers for the Van Diemen’s Land Company at Circular Head (no mention of convicts)was abandoned and after first sighting Van Diemen’s Land on the 17th of February, the ship entered the Tamar River on the 18th February 1831 and docked at Launceston the following day. The ship left for Hobart on the 12th March 1831 and on the 1st April 1831, the Thomas Lawrie arrived in Hobart.
On the 22nd February 1831 the Friendship (VDL Co.’s schooner) departed Launceston transporting stock, goods & passengers ex Thomas Lawrie to Circular Head, our family’s new home for the next seven years.
Ref: EXTRACTS from “JOHN GLOVER” by J. McPhee, TMAG, 1977. Written in Italics.
Seven years of servitude
However, by the time the Blencowes arrived in early 1831 paddocks had been cleared and fenced and workmen’s cottages, barns and stables erected in the style of an English farm as seen in this 1831 painting by Hellyer.
According to a 1832 newspaper report forty-five men, eleven women, ten boys and fifteen girls (including our lot) were employed and living on the Circular Head property in 1832. Indentured servants such as John were assigned convicts and made up the bulk of the workforce.
Earlier families and single men lived in primitive wooden barracks together with the convicts. However, by 1831 there was an office with two rooms, and a seven room house and seven cottages had been completed for free men and their families. It is thought that we occupied one of the houses.
Earlier families and single men lived in primitive wooden barracks together with the convicts. However, by 1831 there was an office with two rooms, and a seven room house and seven cottages had been completed for free men and their families. It is thought that we occupied one of the houses.
These wooden and stone farms buildings are open to the public and were probably where John worked.
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The Guide on the Woolnorth VDLC property suggested that the house photographed would have been similar to what the Blencowes could have lived in at Circular Head. Ours may have been of weatherboard. This house was lined with weather board and reasonably spacious. There were two bedrooms. By today’s standards very crowded with 6 children and two adults. The sketched house was done in 1830.
Stone houses like this were built for freemen who were NOT indentured servants. These were built c.1830 so were already here when our family arrived at Highfield.
There were shops for the blacksmiths and carpenters, a tool house, saw pits, nail house, sheds and stables, boat shed, jetty, a two storey threshing barn with an 8 hp steam engine, straw barn, cow shed of 26 stalls, a dairy and a cheese room. A 60 ft well had been dug for drinking water, and another 28 ft deep with a pump, to be used for the stock. Six waterholes had been dug and nearly twelve miles of post‑and‑three‑rail fencing had been put up, as well as some chock‑and‑log fencing. All this area had been drained and was served by well‑formed roads.
By 1833 there were 73 convicts housed in an imposing solidly built stone structure with a view to die for. These barracks were built from 1834 and occupied from 1836.No wonder that fewer convicts tried to escape than indentured servants who absconded whenever a chance arose.
By 1834, there were around 400 people employed on the VDNC estate, almost half of whom were convicts.
Indentured servants arrived at Circular Head to see “…other free men making ten times the sum which they were to receive, and that a transported Offender (convict) is under little more rigorous control. It cannot therefore be surprising that the men are discontented and strive to get away from a species of slavery, little better than actual transportation….” Working side by side with convicts caused tension. They performed the same type and hours of work. The hours of labour were from daylight to dark in the late autumn and winter months and throughout the spring and summer months, from 5 – 6am until 7 – 8pm. A total of an hour and a half was all that was allowed for meal breaks. Sunday was free of work. It was not only the men who were put to work. Wives worked the gardens, and the laundries. It is more than likely that Mary was employed in the house, either in the kitchen, as a maid or minding the many Curr children in their own nursery wing of the house. They kept the houses of the officers and milked the cows.
Children were made work too. This wonderful lifestyle picture shows women in front of what is probably a weatherboard house, youth with a dog tending horses and two young girls, such as Thomasine and Selinda working the cattle.
Some of the luckier lads were apprenticed to their fathers. George, the eldest son, may have had this opportunity.
Highfield House was designed in 1832 by Henry Hellyer & finished in 1833-34. It fell into disrepair until purchased in 1982 by Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service & restored.
By the time the Blencowes left in 1838 the property had about 70 houses, mostly wooden and some in stone.
The variety of early paintings gives us an indication of how it was in their time there.
The photo below shows the cart shed. Being employed as a wheelwright probably means that this was John’s place of work.
This painting below of Highfield House shows the earlier seven roomed house that was there when our family arrived. It is on the left and partly obscured by Highfield House.
Although imported stock bloodlines were a success, the prime purpose, fine merino wool production, was a failure. Thousands of sheep were lost due to extreme cold during 1831–33, and revenue from wool sales realised just £20 000 from 1829 to 1852. Cropping, cattle and horse breeding have also been tried. The eventual move from wool to land sales proved a successful strategy, so much so that the VDLC remains in business in 2012, operating from its New Zealand headquarters and from Woolnorth, its property at Cape Grim. Only 22, 200 hectares remain, part of the Woolnorth VDLC land and employs 120 workers in dairy beef and sheep enterprises. Numerous wind turbines dominated the landscape. We toured Woolnorth and the guide said that although John was based at Circular Head, he and possibly George would have also worked at Woolnorth.
Our family worked hard and although they were not happy there, the children born in Tasmania all thrived: Selinda (1833-1908), Thomas (1835 – 1846 and Robert (1837-1913). I do not think much in the way of schooling was available when they first arrived. However, the children were all literate. The Highfield Guide assured me that the children from about 1834 did indeed have a good education from when they turned 3 until 10 IF they were Catholic!
The two-storey stone building above, was built for Edward Curr and used regularly for divine services. The upper room was used as a schoolroom by the children of Highfield. Below left is a re-creation of the school room and the Chapel interior is to the left.
It was very special wandering in the footsteps of our early family.
Baptisms and their schooling
I asked questions both at Highfield House and in Launceston. I visited the school room which was the upper room of the Highfield chapel. Selinda, Thomas and Robert were all baptised at St John’s Anglican in Launceston within a reasonable time from their birth. There were no roads at that time. The only way back was by boat on the one day a week off. Robert’s baptism appears to have been on their way to the boat for South Australia.
Name Birth date@ Circular Head Baptism date @ St John’s Launceston
Celinda 31 July 1833 1 January 1834 aged 6 months
Thomas 2 July 1835 1 March 1837 aged 20 mths
Robert 28 Sept. 1837 21 Feb.1838 aged 5 mths
Did our family pretend to be Catholic in order to have the children attend school and sneak off to Launceston to have them baptised rather than as Circular Head Catholics?
The Sketch of the parish Church of St John was done in 1830, when the church was 5 years old. Upstairs were galleries for the convicts to keep them separate from other parishioners.
The font on the left is the one that John and Mary would have stood before for the baptisms of Selinda, Thomas and Robert. The Rector, Rev Browne would most probably have performed our family Christenings. St John’s is considered to be the Mother Church of northern Tasmania. Built along cathedral lines, it is recognised as one of Australia’s most beautiful parish Churches. The middle photo of St John’s supports that opinion.
The Blencowes had been literate for generations, so despite a questionable upbringing, I feel that John must have had the basic skills. I’m not so sure about Mary, anyway, I doubt if John or Mary would have had time to teach the children. The guide assured me that by 1830 when John was recruited, they were only looking for educated men with good morals and work skills.
In my conversation with the Guide, she asked what became of the family. I told her that John had spent 7 years in a mental asylum and wondered if it was due to his experience in with the VDLC. She said that the indentures servants couldn‘t get out of the place quickly enough. What they witnessed and were forced to take part in was horrific and drove many insane in later years. The people who stayed on in the area and obtained property were mostly either convicts or free settlers and rarely the indentured servants.
What were the atrocities?
Two controversial and complex matters created problems for the Company: their relations with Aborigines and their own indentured servants.
Firstly, the supposed humanitarian sentiments of directors towards Aborigines are often deemed mere outward show, especially in the light of violent acts by Company personnel. After early skirmishes, with huts burnt and sheep speared, three Aborigines were killed at Ritchie’s stock hut in 1827. At Cape Grim, when shepherds attempted to ‘take liberties’ with Aboriginal women, a convict was speared in the thigh and over one hundred sheep were killed. Reprisal by shepherds on 10 February 1828 saw about thirty Aborigines killed. The despicable murder of an Aboriginal woman at Emu Bay on 21 August 1829 saw authorities thwart justice and explain away the affair under the guise of martial law and personal disputes. The period 1836–42 saw the last free group of Aborigines faced with spring-loaded guns or man traps in huts that they had habitually plundered. The sad story of Company race relations saw at least two white men and possibly 36 Aborigines killed. Whatever, he exact numbers are there is little doubt that it was the company’s aim to be rid of the Aboriginal population, by extermination if necessary.
Secondly, Curr admitted being a ‘coercive master’ who doled out strict justice and discipline. Despite the benefits of rations, wood and water, differences between Company and colonial wages led indentured servants to abscond or seek legal loopholes to escape Company servitude. Such problems led Curr to proclaim that the VDL Company ‘owed everything we are and have’ to the favour of convict labour.
While settlers clamoured for convicts, the Company was ‘paid’ for taking them. Moreover, arrangements were made for agricultural workers sentenced in England for protest activities to be assigned as Company convicts. When convicts were no longer assigned, the Company still pressed for special consideration. As regards numbers, these ranged from 35 convicts in 1827 to a peak of 117 in 1835. Although Company convicts had a good reputation, incidents such as the escape of six convicts in a sealing vessel in 1828 or the 1835 plan to capture Circular Head and seize the Company schooner Edward are worthy of note.
Edward Curr, who was dismissed in 1841, later admitted to encouraging murder of Aborigines and to offering rum as a reward for their heads. He was known to sit on the veranda of Highfield House enjoying a drop of port whilst picking off Aboriginal women and children with his pistol if they came into view. Indentured servants would then be told to throw the bodies over the cliff into the sea. If John participated in such action, either voluntarily or by force, is it little wonder that his demons got the better of him in later life! You wonder what the six children were witness to over that time.
Contact completed
Most indentures were for a three year period but some, including John’s were for seven years. They began when they were landed on the shores of Van Diemens Land. The Indenture provided the servant with free passage to the colony, however, if the full term of Indenture was not fulfilled then the remainder of the passage money was to be repaid to the company. If he did take up the offer of lease then he was to pay the balance of the passage money still owing. The commitment for the indentured servant was to serve their master and work hard without complaint. For every day or part of the day he was absent, he was to pay the company 2/10d.
To stay or to flee – for better or for worse we live by our decisions
When his indenture was completed, John had the option to lease or purchase land in the region, making him his own master in command of his future. An opportunity he would never have had around Northamptonshire. Many of the servants did indeed purchase their own land. They had the strength to endure the hardships and gain a better future. However, whatever experience our family had, they were not about to seek their future in Tasmania.
The family had wasted no time in getting out of the Circular Head once John’s contract expired. By 1838, the area around Circular Head was still very remote and the climate extreme. There was continued unrest with the irate Aborigines, many convicts who had been released on work bonds in the area and bushrangers, often escaped convicts, terrorising the emerging landholders. There was very little respect shown for migrants who did not pay their own passage out as they were seen to be either convicts or assisted servants. No doubt John and his family moved to escape the lifestyle. Their desire to live in a less isolated and safe place led to the decision to choose South Australia, the only convict-free state in Australia.
Slightly different stories have passed down via their various children. It was widely believed they travelled on the “Hartley” with Captain Fewston for Kangaroo Island accompanying a load of sheep. From there, it is thought, they took a ketch to Port Adelaide. Searching the internet has brought us closer to the real picture with both Barrie Robinson, one of Selinda’s descendents and myself, one of George’s descendants, finding the family’s departure and arrival records.
14 January 1838 on its Maiden voyage the Hartley leaves Launceston.
26 January 1838 Hartley from Launceston under Captain Thomas Fewson arrived at Port Adelaide with 9 passengers, including John Beaucow and 1000 sheep. As the trip normally took between 6 and 7 days it is possible that the barque Hartley stopped over at Kangaroo Island, this would explain the 4 or 5 extra days taken.
Was John escorting sheep or just sharing the ship and taking the opportunity to check out Adelaide as a future home for the family? It seems most likely that he stayed in South Australia and missed his son, Robert’s christening.
On 21 February 1838, almost 7 years to the day from their arrival Robert is baptised at St John’s, Launceston.
10 March 1838, Mrs Blenco accompanied by 6 children, set sail on the Hartley from George Town for South Australia. George Town was often used as the Port for Launceston as it is at the mouth of the Tamar River.
16 March 1838, Hartley arrived from Launceston to Port Adelaide with Blencowe/Bluico, Mary nee Drinkwater, Brackley, North Eng. Wife of John with children and no John. They travelled with 1200 sheep, 5 head of horned cattle, horses etc.
As Port Adelaide had not been developed, there were very few conveniences. Rowing boats shuttled passengers to within a few metres of the shore from where they waded through water then squelching mud and mangroves to reach the shore. They were watched by welcoming bands of Aborigines who found mirth at their discomfort and begged for biscuits and tobacco. While the boat was unloaded, the new arrivals spent the night in makeshift shelters of reeds and tents whilst fighting off hordes of mosquitoes.
The next day, the passengers were transported by wagon, a hired cart or simply walked carrying their few belongings in linen bags, baskets and boxes the seven miles along the dusty track to Adelaide which was just a small village built beside the Torrens River.
For a short time our family lived in dug-outs in the banks of the Torrens River alongside hostile Aborigines, before obtaining lodgings in South Terrace, Adelaide.
THE END
Family Group
Descendants who Served
Anne Burton began a project many years ago to research/write a tribute to all Blencowes that served in the two world wars. Her father Harold had served and an Uncle was killed, so she had that family tradition, that made this so important to her. I took over this research when Anne was clearly stretched too thin, and now the Blencowes that Served research represents more than half of the pages written, on these Guild One-Name websites. Over 900 veterans have been identified and tribute pages written for most. Below a subset, of that includes Annes family that served, they are the grandchildren of John and Mary.
Emma Loveday Blencowe
(1905 – 1988) (great grand daughter) married Alfred Hilton Schofield 1897 – 1964 an emigrant from Britain in 1933 in Birchip Victoria.
Arthur had been in Australia 11 years . When WW2 came round Arthur volunteered at age 43 to served and while based in Australia most of the time, later served in New Guinea with the No 37 Employement Company Royal Australian Engineers . His WW2 Page
Richard Allan Blencowe (1890 – 1954)
(great grandson) served himself and all 5 sons served.
Harold Blencowe,
(1918-1994), was the son of Dorothy Ward and Richard Allan Blencowe, an Australian soldier. Following his parents’ marriage, Harold and his mother emigrated to Australia travelling with his father a returning soldier. Harold served in WW2 a Corporal with Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).
Allan Roy Blencowe
, (1920-1987) served in WW2 2/4th Infantry Bn. Australian Army
Maurice George Blencowe,
(1923-1943), was KIA 1 Oct 1943, Kakakog, near, Finschhafen, Morobe, Papua New Guinea.
Noel Thomas Blencowe
, (1923-2014)
A twin to Maurice he also Served with the Australian Army in Papua New Guinea
Bruce Blencowe
(1925-1998)
Served as a leading aircraftsman in Papua New Guinea with the Royal Australian Air Force
Rose Blencowe (1858 – 1946)
(granddaughter)married John Henry Chigwidden
(1854 – 1924) Son Gilbert served
Gilbert Josiah Chigwidden (1885 – 1967)
served in WW1 withe Australian Army in France and Belgium
Mary Ann Blencowe
(Abt 1856 – 1941) (granddaughter) married Samuel Bright (1848 – 1926) they had 12 children. Three served and they were.
Albert Victor Bright
(1888 – 1972)
Served in WW1 with the Australian Army in France
Percy Maldon Bright
(1890 – 1953)
Served in WW1 with the Australian Army in France
Hurtle Murray Bright
(1895 – 1971)
Served in WW1 with the Australian Army in Egypt and France
William Henry Blencowe
(1865 – 1918) (grandson) married Eva Georgina Hooper (1870 – 1958) they had 5 children. William Henry ‘Billy’ served alongside son Frederick in WW1 was sunk in the meditteranean and burnt badly, invalided home he died from war related illnesses.
Frederick William Blencowe, MM
(1894 – 1960) Served with distinction in Egypt, Gallipoli and France with the Australian Army
Sources
- Anne Burton Reserach
- Ancestry and Blencowe TNG Database
- Catherine Louise Westerland – Ancestry Westerland Tree