Capt Arthur de Bells Adam (MC)
1885 - 1916

CPL David Wallace Crawford
1887 - 1916

Lce-Corpl John Joseph Nickle
1894 - 1916

Pte 17911 Morton Neill
1897 - 1916

Lieut Edward Stanley Ashcroft
1883 - 1918

Pte 50094 Thomas Blenkhorn

Age: 38
From: Scalthwaiterigg
Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 19th Btn
K.I.A Saturday 30th March 1918
Commemorated at: Ham British Cem
Panel Ref: German Ext Mem 3

Thomas was born in late 1879 in Meal Bank, Scalthwaiterigg the son of Robert Blenkhorn and his wife Isabel (nee Wilson). His parents were both born in Kendal and married in 1865 in the Wesleyan Chapel there. They had at least six children: Wilson, Alfred (died aged 2 ), Elizabeth, Eleanor, and Thomas, all born in Scalthwaitterigg, and Ernest, born in Skelsmergh, just a couple of miles away. Many records show the last name as Blenkharn.

In 1881 the family is living in Meal Bank, Westmorland. Meal Bank is a mill village lies between the parish of Scalthwaiterigg and Skelsmergh; the village is so small there are no addresses. His father, 40, is a woollen spinner, his mother is 35, they have four children, Thomas is one year old.

They are still in Meal Bank in 1891, now with five children. His father is a woollen spinner, and his three older siblings also work in the woollen mill. Thomas is 11, Ernest is 8.

His father, Robert, died in 1898, aged 57.

The 1901 Census finds his widowed mother Isabella, 55, at The School House , Meal Bank, with three children at home, all working in the woollen mill. Wilson, 32, is a carding engineer, Thomas is 21, a spinner, Ernest, 18, is an under carder.

By 1911 the family has moved to Colne, Lancashire, and are found at 152 Skipton Road, running a laundry. Wilson, 42, is the laundry proprietor/employer, Elizabeth, 38, is at home, Eleanor, 33, is the manageress, Thomas, 31, is the washerman, and Ernest, 28, is the vanman. Their mother Isabella is 65, no occupation.

Later that year, in the summer of 1911, Tom married Mary Robinson in Skelsmergh church.

He enlisted in Colne. The amount of the War Gratuity suggests that he served for 15 months, being called up at the end of 1916. An online memorial page to the men of the Skelsmergh area states that, as a married man of 38, he hoped to fail his physical, but was passed A1. He was drafted into the 20th Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private 50094. He was later transferred to the 19th Bn K.L.R., most likely in February 1918 when the 20th Battalion was disbanded in France, and served in ‘B’ Coy, 6th Platoon.

Tom was initially reported as Missing between 22-30 March. CWGC records give his date of death as 30th March 1918.

As Graham Maddocks points out in his book The Liverpool Pals, the CWGC records 38 men of the 19^th Bn of The King’s Liverpool Regiment as killed in action on 30^th March 1918 when as the Battalion diary below, shown in bold type, records that the men were actually out of the line and safely on the way to St Valery- sur- Somme.

The composite battalion moved off from ROUVREL at 8.30 am at 50 yards interval between companies, arriving at SALEUX at 3.20 pm where they entrained, detraining at ST. VALERY-SUR-SOMME the same night. The night was spent at ST. VALERY-SUR-SOMME.

Apart from those whose bodies were not found and are commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial all but two have burial sites at Savy British Cemetery, which itself is within a couple of miles of Roupy and contains most of the identified men killed on 22^nd March 1918. Therefore, it would appear that the date of death for these men shown as 30^th March 1918 is purely an arbitrary one and that they were in fact killed on 22^nd March.

A local Westmorland newspaper reported;

“Mrs. Blenkhorn, Scalthwaiterigg Stocks, has received official news that her husband, Pte. Tom Blenkhorn, King’s Liverpool Reg’t., is reported missing from March 22nd. Pte. Blenkhorn was an old Meal Bank boy, but for some years previous to enlistment had been in business at Colne, Lancashire.”

Tom was reported Missing in the Weekly Casualty List on 4th June 1918.

His family made enquiries with the International Red Cross. His younger brother Ernest, living at 9 Gertrude Street, Nelson, Lancashire, received a reply on 3rd July 1918 notifying him that they held no information. An enquiry from Mr. Blenkhorn (incorrectly recorded as father), at 17 Coltsgate Hill, Ripon, Yorkshire, received the same negative response. Eleven months after he was reported missing, his wife Mary was still seeking information. She received the same reply, on 25th February 1919, that they held no record for Tom.

Records give various dates of death. He appears to have died in a German field hospital, some records stating that he was held as a prisoner of war. If Tom had died in German hands there should be an International Red Cross POW record for him. A thorough search of the ICRC POW records turns up the family enquiries, but nothing from the German authorities.

CWGC records show that Thomas was buried by the Germans in Ham Communal Cemetery, German Extension, the Neuer Friedhof Chaunystrasse, i.e., New Cemetery, Rue de Chauny. His body was later removed to Ham British Cemetery, begun in January 1918 as an extension of Muille-Villette German Cemetery. In 1919 the graves in the British Cemetery were regrouped and others added from nearby sites, including Ham German Cemetery.

His headstone in Ham British Cemetery, Muille-Vilette, is a special Kipling Memorial:

“To the memory of these two British Soldiers, who died in 1918, as Prisoners of War, and were buried at the time in Ham Communal Cemetery, German Extension, but whose graves are now lost.”

“Their Glory shall not be blotted out”

9/R. Innis. Fus. 23648 GRAHAM Pte. R. 29/3/18

19/K. Lpool. Regt. 50084 BLINKHORN Pte. T. 30/3/18

Mary added a personal inscription to his headstone which in Tom's case reads:

“FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH”

In January, February and March 1918, the 61st (South Midland) Casualty Clearing Station was posted at Ham, but on the 23rd March the Germans, in their advance towards Amiens, crossed the Somme at Ham, and the town remained in German hands until the French First Army re-entered it on the following 6th September.

Ham British Cemetery was begun in January 1918 by the 61st Casualty Clearing Station as an extension of Muille-Villette German Cemetery.

In 1919 the graves in the British Cemetery were regrouped and others were added from the following sites:-

HAM COMMUNAL CEMETERY GERMAN EXTENSION (the "Neuer Friedhof Chaunystrasse"); CROIX-MOLIGNAUX GERMAN CEMETERY (March and April 1918); ESMERY HALLON CHURCHYARD; VILLERS ST. CHRISTOPHE CHURCHYARD (March 1918); EPPEVILLE COMMUNAL CEMETERY GERMAN EXTENSION (March 1918); and ST. SULPICE COMMUNAL CEMETERY.

Ham British Cemetery contains 485 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the First World War. 218 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 14 soldiers, believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials record the names of 39 casualties known to have been buried in other cemeteries whose graves were not found.

Other German Cemeteries in the area were HAM CHURCHYARD GERMAN EXTENSION; MUILLE-VILLETTE GERMAN CEMETERY and MUILLE-VILLETTE COMMUNAL CEMETERY GERMAN EXTENSION. The British Graves from these three were moved to either HAM BRITISH CEMETERY or ROYE NEW BRITISH CEMETERY.

MUILLE-VILLETTE GERMAN CEMETERY adjoins the West side of the British Cemetery. It now contains the graves of 1,113 identified and 420 unidentified German soldiers.

Soldiers’ Effects gives his date of death as 25th March 1919 [sic], as a POW, Germany.

The pension card shows Missing 22-30 March, but this was later crossed out and replaced with “date of death 25/3/1918, died POW”. Mary received a widow’s pension of 13/9d a week from December 1918.

His widow Mary, living at 34 Meal Bank, near Kendal, received Tom’s Army effects and a War Gratuity of £6-10s.

Probate, giving Tom’s address as 7 Devon Street, Langroyd, Colne, was granted to his widow Mary, effects £176-4s-6d. His death in the probate record is given as 25th March at Reserve Field Lazaret, France.

His widow Mary returned home, never remarried, and died in Westmorland in 1968, aged 85.

Tom is commemorated on the following memorials:

Colne Memorial

Skelsmergh, Cumbria, Memorial

His great nephew, the composer Robin Walker, wrote a short brassband piece called Blenkhorn KLR that was played on Radio 3 by the Grimethorpe Collier Band.

On the 1939 register his widow is still living at 34 Mealbank, dob 27th Jun 1882. She is living with Sara A. Robinson (incapacitated) dob 7th July 1880

We currently have no further information on Thomas Blenkhorn, If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.

Grateful thanks are extended to Tony Cousins for contacting this site and assisting with the biographical details and the photograph on Thomas held on the site.

Killed On This Day.

(110 Years this day)
Wednesday 19th April 1916.
Pte 15260 William Porter
27 years old

(109 Years this day)
Thursday 19th April 1917.
Pte 57857 James Carter
19 years old

(109 Years this day)
Thursday 19th April 1917.
Pte 57792 Albany Howarth
19 years old

(109 Years this day)
Thursday 19th April 1917.
Pte 48091 William King
38 years old

(108 Years this day)
Friday 19th April 1918.
2nd Lieut Rowland Gill (MC) (MM)
33 years old