Eric John Blencowe [9766]

1925-1944

Father Nm: Frank Blencowe 1889–1957. Birth 22 Aug 1889 • Gawcott, Buckinghamshire, England. Death Jan 1957 • Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.

Mother Nm: Eliza Jane Cherry 1890–1971. Birth 21 Jan 1890 • Barton Hartshorn, Buckinghamshire, England. Death Jul 1971 • Oxford, Oxfordshire, England

Marriage Dt:

K comments:

WW1: Father Frank served with the Machine Gun Corps, Uncle Joseph Henry with the Royal Army Veterinary Corps and Uncle John with the Australian Army

WW2: Brother Ronald Frank served from 1940 as a Stoker with the Royal Navy. Cousin Joseph William with the RAF

WW1: Father Frank served with Oxford and Bucks LI. and the Machine Gun Corps. Uncle John emigrated and served with the Australian Army and Uncle Joseph Henry served with Oxford and Bucks LI.

WW2: Brother Ronald Frank was a Stoker in the Royal Navy. Cousin Joseph W served with the RAF.

Spouse comments:

(Research): Ancestry

Oldest Known Ancestor: William Blencowe, C1788, Buckingham.

Children:

Birth

22 MAR 1925 • Gawcott, Bucks

Before the War

1939 Census

WW2

Blencowe Eric John, Stoker, DKX.527840, Royal Navy

1943

• 25 March. Eric may well have joined the Navy on his 18th Birthday following his eldest brother into the Royal Navy. It seems Eric was sent overseas for training because in early 1944 he was traveling to HMS Lanka the RN training facility in Colombo, Sri  Lanka.

1944

• December-January. Eric a new recruit along with many other Military personnel were to be posted to Colombo in then Ceylon (Sri Lanka). After a long trip sailing from Britain via Cape Town they arrived in Mombasa, Kenya.

• 5th February. Eric and 1,323 other passengers board the Khedive Ismail and are bound for Colombo across the Indian sea.

  

  Eric was one of  271 Royal Navy personnel, 19 WRNS, 53 nursing sisters, and their matron and others going to Colombo. They are formed up into a Convoy KR8 and escorted by Royal Navy ships the Indian Ocean has become very dangerous waters to transverse because of the operations of the Japanese submarine fleet.

• 12th February.“Early in the afternoon of Saturday 12 February, after a week at sea, KR 8 was in the One and a Half Degree Channel south-west of the Maldives. After lunch, many of the passengers were below watching an ENSA concert, while others sunbathed on deck. At 1430 hrs the Japanese submarine I-27 had taken position off Khedive Ismail‘s port side to attack. A lookout sighted I-27‘s periscope and raised the alarm; Khedive Ismail‘s DEMS gunners opened fire on the submarine. At the same time I-27‘s commander, Cdr Toshiaki Fukumura, fired a spread of four torpedoes, two of which hit Khedive Ismail.^[39]

  

  HMS Petard depth charged, shelled, torpedoed and sank I-27

  The troop ship’s stern was engulfed in flame and smoke and she sank in three minutes. As the convoy’s merchant ships scattered for safety, Paladin lowered boats to rescue survivors and Petard released depth charges. The troop ship had sunk too quickly to launch any lifeboats, but her Carley floats floated free and some survivors were able to board them. WIKIPEDIA.

• Only 208 men and 6 women survived the sinking of the Khedive and Eric was one of 1,220 men and 77 women who were killed. The sinking was the third largest loss of life from Allied shipping in World War II and the largest loss of servicewomen in the history of the Commonwealth.

Memorial

Medals

We have no medal records but he was entitled to these medals for his service

1939-45 Star mmedal

Eric could have been awarded both of these medals

Sources

1. Forces War Records-National Archives.
2. Commonwealth War Graves Commission
3. The Ismail Khedive Story
4. UK Govt website on eligibility for Medals
5. Ancestry Military Tree of Blencowes ww2

From Blencowe Families Newsletter Archives Vol. 32 No. 1 February 2017

Sometimes the Records are Incorrect

According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Stoker 2nd Class: Eric John Blencowe, Service number: D/KX 527840, son of Frank & Eliza Blencowe and brother of Freda & Ronald of Steeple Claydon, Buckinghamshire was with HMS Lanka, which was a shore-based Naval establishment on the outskirts of Colombo in Sri Lanka, when he perished aged 18 on 12 February 1944.

Our military expert, Roger Blinko, found this to be incorrect. Eric John Blencowe was a stoker aboard the SS Khedive Ismail a steamship requisitioned as a British troopship by the Ministry of War Transport.

From Source Wikipedia “On 6 February 1944 Convoy KR-8 sailed from Kilindini Harbour at Mombasa, Kenya to Colombo, Ceylon. The convoy consisted of five troop transports (Khedive Ismail, City of Paris, Varsova, Ekma & Ellenga), escorted by the heavy cruiser HMS Hawkins and the destroyers HMS Petard and HMS Paladin.

In the early afternoon of Saturday 12 February 1944, the Japanese B1 type submarine I-27, commanded by Lt-Cdr Toshiaki Fukumura, attacked the convoy in the One and a Half Degree Channel, south-west of the Maldives.

The submarine sank the Khedive Ismail with two torpedoes. The ship was carrying 1,511 personnel including 178 crew, 996 officers and men of the East African Artillery’s 301st Field Regiment, 271 Royal Navy personnel, and a detachment of 19 Wrens. Also on board were 53 nursing sisters accompanied by one matron, and 9 members of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry.

As survivors floundered in the sea, I-27 submerged and hid beneath them. While HMS Paladin lowered boats over her side to begin rescuing survivors, HMS Petard raced in to release depth charges. The destruction of an enemy submarine that might sink more ships took precedence over the lives of the survivors, besides; I-27 under Commander Fukumura had a history of machine-gunning survivors of ships she had sunk, including the Liberty ship SS Sambridge and the Fort Mumford.

On Petard’s third run, her depth charges forced I-27 to the surface. Paladin rammed the submarine, in the process causing considerable damage to herself. Finally, a torpedo from Petard destroyed the I-27.

1,297 people, including 77 women, lost their lives in the 2 minutes it took for the Khedive Ismail to sink. Only 208 men & 6 women survived. The sinking was the third-worst Allied shipping disaster of World War II and the single worst loss of female service personnel in the history of the Commonwealth of Nations. Eric John Blencowe perished with those 1,297 people. He is remembered with honour on the PLYMOUTH NAVAL MEMORIAL: Panel 90, Column 2.

Sources

1. CWGC
2. https://www.royalmarineshistory.com/post/sinking-of-the-troopship-khedive-ismail
3. Ref:  www.naval-history.net/index.htm

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