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The Great War in St John’s Parish: Blinco Grove
World War One - Blinco grove
Blinco Grove
Thirty three men and seven women from Blinco Grove are known to have served at some time. At the start of the war there were 105 households in the road. Seven died in action; one died from illness contracted on service.
Walter E Golding
No.6: William Muir, private with 70th Canadian Forestry Corps. This was a special unit of 250 Canadians who were recruited in 1917 to work on construction projects such as laying pipelines, building telephone lines and new railway tracks. He was a farmer from Greenwood, British Columbia, who enlisted in June 1917. On 1/10/18 he married Marguerita Piper of 6 Blinco Grove at St John’s church.
No 12: Percy Valentine Stock, private in RAMC at Cherry Hinton Military Hospital. He had been for 4 years an attendant at the Cambridgeshire Asylum. Percy had worked for four years as an assistant at the Cambridge Asylum. In 1915 he took a job as a sorter at the Post Office. The temptations of the job were too great and in August 1917 he pleaded guilty to the theft of postal orders. Over £240 in cash was found in a search of his house but thanks to the testimony of the Rev G F Jackson of St John’s he was only given 2 months, after which he joined the RAMC. He was discharged in 1920 on health grounds.
No. 12: Edwin John Gifford, sergeant in the RAMC at 1st Eastern Gen. Hosp. then at D Coy Depot in Blackpool. He enlisted 6/8/14. On 23/2/16 he married Edith Francis at St John’s. He was discharged in 1918 with TB.
No. 12: Edith Francis, a nursing sister at the 1st Eastern General Hospital.
No.14: Leonard R S Duke, born 1899, was a volunteer with the Red Cross from 1914-1916 involved in convoy work. He was the son of William Duke the carpenter and joiner.
No.16: Elsie May Baker, b. 1895, daughter of George Baker the joiner, was a Red Cross volunteer from 1916-1919 at the 1st Eastern General Hospital.
No. 18: John Rowell, a chef’s apprentice, private in D Battery Reserve Royal Field Artillery. Enlisted in June 1916. In France from June 1917 to Sept. 1919.
No. 18: Leslie Alfred F Rowell, sapper in Royal Engineers. 15/9/17 married Ethel Butler of Fowlmere at St John’s.
No. 18: John Harold Hanson, lieutenant in Machine Gun Corps. Born 1889 Halifax, he married Dorothy Rowell of 18 Blinco Grove 14/11/17 at St John’s.
No. 28: Edwin James Barnes, private in Motorised Army Service Corps. From Hereford, he married Margaret Barnard of 28 Blinco Grove on 16/6/16 at St John’s.
No.32: Annie Mary Cole, b. 1878, was already a health visitor and nurse. In August 1914 she volunteered to join the Red Cross and was at Huntley VAD Hospital. She used to meet convoys of wounded at the station. Huntley was a 13 roomed house in Herschel Road, Cambridge.
No. 34: Harry Amos Rice, private in 15th London Regiment. He enlisted in 1915 and served Mar.-Nov 1916 in France. Discharged 1917 following shrapnel injury which caused complex fracture of the fibula and amputation of right big toe.
No. 64: Tom Cecil Marriott, corporal in Labour Corps. A joiner and carpenter, he enlisted March 1916.
No. 74: Harry Huckle, Company Sergeant Major 11th Battalion Suffolk Regiment. He was an inspector clerk who in 1911 had been living with his family in Marshall Road. He died on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, 1/7/1916, and his name is recorded on the Thieval Memorial. The 11th Battalion had been raised in November 1914 at the instigation of the Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire. It set up at the County School (now Hills Road Sixth Form College) and then on Cherry Hinton Meadows (near Cherry Hinton Park) where there were 30 huts. In May 1915 the battalion of approximately 1,400 left Cambridge for training at Ripon. They reached France in January 1916. 190 from the battalion fell on the 1/7/16, half of whom had Cambridge connections.
No. 116: Harry Fairey, 2nd class air mechanic with 192nd RAF Training Squadron. Originally a plumber’s apprentice, he was killed 24/5/1918 and is buried at St Andrew’s Cherry Hinton.We don’t know the circumstances of his death but his squadron specialised in training night bombers, an especially hazardous exploit in those early days of flying.
No. 156: Thomas Butcher, naval reservist with Royal Marine Artillery. He had enlisted in 1899. On 13/12/14 he baptised his daughter at St John’s.
No. 158: Elsie Barnett Hall joined the Red Cross in April 1917 and worked as a clerk until October the same year. Her pay was 20s.
No. 129: W B Osler, private in Suffolk Reg. Joined up May 1916. His mother heard that he had been wounded slightly in the left leg.
No. 129: A Gray, private in RAMC. He served in France with Red Cross. In 1919 Mrs Gray objects to £50 being spent on local Peace Parade party.
No.123: 25/12/1914 Miss Ann Agnes Adelaide Edwards found dead in a water butt. Depressed because of the war; verdict of suicide from unsound mind.
No. 123: Mrs Wilsher volunteered for the Red Cross 1915-1919 at the 1st Eastern General.
No. 111: Frederick Percy Meadows, b. 1889, a legal clerk, volunteered for the Red Cross from 1916-18. He would meet hospital convoys.
No. 109: Water Eric L Golding, joined Royal Horse Artillery and became lieutenant in 1st Btn Middlesex Regiment. Awarded DCM, he was killed 15/7/1916. The 14th – 17th July saw his battalion, ‘The Die Hards’, in the Battle of Bazentin Ridge; losses were very heavy
No. 105: Robert Ernest Muddle, private with East Surrey Regiment. Enlisted July 1917, his wife lived in Herne Bay. Reported missing presumed dead 9/4/18; buried Hainault.
No. 87: Albert George Fuller b.1895, an educational clerk, joined 11th (Cambs) Btn Suffolk Reg.
No. 87: His father, Charles James Fuller b.1874, a police constable, joined 203rd (Cambs) Field Co. R.E.
No. 87: His wife, Florence Ellen Fuller, b. 1870 volunteered for the Red Cross and worked at the 1st Eastern General Hospital.
No. 71: Herbert Ledger Parr, b. 1874 Blyton Lincs., a domestic steward, joined 50th General Hospital RAMC. Called up in June 1918 and sent with 20th Salonika Reinforcements. Arrived in Taranto then Salonika. Returned in 1919.
No. 71: His wife, Edith Parr b.1876, volunteered for the Red Cross and worked at the 1st Eastern General Hospital from 1915-1919.
No. 67: George Henry Basil Nice, sapper with Royal Engineers 45th Field Company. Enlisted Oct 1916, demob. 1919. Died July 1919 Papworth Everard from TB.
No. 65: Charles Gilbert Bowyer, private 1st Btn Cambridgeshire Reg. The son of Charles Bowyer, a railway guard, in 1901 he was a coal labourer, ten years later a postman in Cleethorpes. He was killed 20/7/1916 at Bazentin, when he was shot through the throat during a raid at the Red Dragon Crater, Givenchy. Two of his comrades wereawarded medals for trying to retrieve body. One of these was Private George Smith of 279 Newmarket Road. Charles was buried at Bethune.
No. 59: Harry Mulliner Tunwell, rifleman with 2nd Btn Rifle Brigade. He died of his wound on 24/04/1918.
No. 59: Hamilton Richards, bombardier with Australian Imperial Force. He married Annie Tunwell of 59 Blinco Grove on 12/6/1919 St Johns. He returned to Australia in 1919.
No. 57: Howard Anderton Smith volunteered for the Red Cross in 1915 as a clerk in the F.A.U. This was the Friends Ambulance Unit set up by young Quakers in London in 1914. Initially their offer of medical help was turned down by the British Red Cross and the army but this changed after the collapse of the Belgian army in October 1914.
No. 51: Marmaduke Lagden Ketteridge, private with RAMC 1st East. Gen Hospital. On 25/9/14 while working at 1st East. Gen. he was seriously injured when a girder fell on him and broke his leg.
No. 47: Arthur Edward Johns, a jeweller, he joined the Labour Coy, Suffolk Reg.
No. 45: Emma Leonora Micklethwait, volunteered for the Red Cross and worked as a cook at Holborn Military Hospital from 1916-17 and then at the Barnet War Hospital until 1918. In 1911 she had been living in Yorkshire with her mother running an apartment house.
No. 41: George Henry Jarvis, 562 M.T. Coy, Army Service Corps (Mech)
No. 29: George Rowe, private Royal Marines. Married Grace Pluck of 29 Blinco Grove on 20/8/18 at St John’s.
No. 11: John William Pamment, b. 1876, Army Service Corps driver. A carman, he enlisted in 1904 as a 10 years reservist. In 1916 he contracted syphilis. On 16/10/17 he was absent from camp from 9.30 pm until 3 pm – punished with 7 days confinement to barracks.
No. 11: Fred Pamment, b. 1899, enlisted 3/9/15 in 3rd Btn 1st Cambs Reg.
No. 11: Bertie Pamment, b 1901, volunteered with the Red Cross from 1916-17 on hospital, convoy and air raid duty.
No. 3: H F Harding, private 2nd Suffolks, welcomed home 17/1/19.
No. 3: Percy Albert Harding, private 11th Suffolks. Killed by shelfire 29/10/1918.
RAF FE2b
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