Joseph Blencowe

1922-2004

Father Nm: Joseph Blencowe 1898–2004. BIRTH 8 DEC 1898 • Banbury
DEATH JAN 1969 • Brackley, Northamptonshire, England

Mother Nm:Letitia West 1899–1959. BIRTH ABT 1899
DEATH JAN 1959 • Brackley, Northamptonshire, England

Marriage Dt:

K comments:

Spouse comments: Joan Millicent Clarke. BIRTH 1930 • South Africa

(Research): Ancestry

Oldest Known Ancestor: Thomas Blencowe,1803, Bishops Itchington.

Children:

Birth

September 30, 1922, Banbury

Before the War

1938

Note: There is one RAF record for a Joseph Blencowe with a serial number allocated for boy entrants. The scheme began in 1934 boys age 15 or older and was given numbers in the range 550000 to 558000. Josephs number 553206 suggesting that between 1934-1938 at least 3206 boys enlisted in this scheme.

• October. Age 16 a boy entrant to RAF  and stationed at RAF Eastchurch on the Isle of Sheppey, north of Chatham in Kent. Daily routine, including rifle, practise bayonet fencing and technical training.

  

Note: The RAF boy entrant scheme started in 1934 with 150 boys and ran too late 1965 where boys joined the RAF between the ages of 15 to 17 and then underwent training in various occupations (or trades) which fitted them for employment in the Royal Air Force. The training was suspended during WWII but recommenced in May 1947. The training was undertaken at a variety of RAF Stations. Training took 18 months and included not just trade and basic training but also more general academic education. After their 18 months of training, they then moved to regular RAF duty stations and commenced employment in the trade they had trained on.

WW2

Blencowe Joseph, NCO, RAF, 1938-1045

1939

• Moved to complete boy entrance training at RAF Cosford which opened in 1939.  Cosford had its own railway halt, is near the village of Albrighton and about seven miles from Wolverhampton.
• 3 September. At the outbreak of war still in training. Note from Cosford, No 2 School of Technical Training – 1939-1940. ” The flight mechanics course started with hand workshop practice, most of which was precision filing: bolts, nuts, threads, taps and dies and drills and drill angles, metals and heat treatment. There was also corrosion and crack detection, carburettors, magnetos and airscrews, the stripping and assembly of engines, starting and running engines.”

1940

• Moved to Maintenance Unit at RAF Henlow, including, assembling Spitfires, armaments and duties.

  

• Took part in the formation of a mobile unit to modify Browning machine gun turrets. the mobile unit was sent on one occasion to France to do work in 1940.

  

   

• Attended training as junior armaments instructor at Empire Air Armaments School, RAF Manby in Lincolnshire.

• 

1941

• Voyage to South Africa onboard ‘Orbita’, via Freetown, Sierra Leone. Convoy attacked by German surface raider but Joseph unscathed and arrived in South Africa at Port Elizabeth.

  

 

1942-1945

• Attended a senior armaments course at 42 Air School, Port Elizabeth, 1942.
• Trainer of Air Bombing probably in Cape Town at 66 Air School (Navigation & Bombing) RAF Youngsfield in 1942 and was likely there until he departed South Africa.

After the War

1946-47

• After he married in 1946 he returned to the Uk to take up instructor duties training Dutch aircrews at RAF Langham, Norfolk, 1946- 1947;

  

Medals

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

 

Sources

1. Forces War Records. War Office records
2. Cosford, No 2 School of Technical Training – 1939-1940 BBC article
3. IWM sound bio of Joseph Blencowes war experience note transcript below
4. Ancestry Military Tree of Blencowes ww2

Additional Information

From Imperial War Museum  a recorded interview.

Joseph Blencowe, British NCO served in RAF in GB and South Africa, 1938-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Banbury, Oxfordshire, GB, 1922-1938: family education; reaction to the threat of war and Chamberlain’s visit to Munich, 1938. Recollections of period with RAF in GB, 1938-1941: RAF boy entrant to RAF Eastchurch, Isle of Sheppey, 10/1938; payment; story of being put on a charge for unauthorised visit to town; daily routine, including rifle practise, bayonet fencing and technical training; opinion of Lord Trenchard’s vision in building up RAF; reasons for enlistment; fellow recruits; move to RAF Cosford to complete training; reaction to outbreak of war 3/9/1939; opinion of Churchill; story of first air raid on Isle of Sheppey; move to Maintenance Unit at RAF Henlow, 1940, including, assembling Spitfires, armaments and duties; formation of mobile unit to modify Browning turrets; question of wish to fly; story of defusing bombs jettisoned from an RAF Blenheim; Norfolk, 1940; visit to France with mobile unit during Phoney War, 1940. REEL 2 Continues: training as junior armaments instructor at RAF Manby, 1940; transfer to Empire Training Scheme in South Africa, 1941; reaction to transfer; atmosphere in GB, 1939-1941; question of shortages; story of bombing incident in Southampton; aspects of brief service at RAF Tangmere during Battle of Britain; German air raids on RAF Henlow; question of casualties; opinion of fighter pilots; nature of RAF promotions. Voyage to South Africa onboard ‘Orbeata’, including, overcrowding, training as ship’s gun crew, the convoy, weather conditions, movements, funeral party at Freetown, Sierra Leone, leave in St Helena, convoy attacked by German surface raider and reception at Port Elizabeth. Recollections of period in South Africa, 1941-1945; aircrew training at Port Elizabeth; impressions of commonwealth aircrew; volunteer nature of South African forces; opinion of General Smuts; attending a senior armaments course at 42 Air School, Cape Town, 1942; story of commanding officer of school shooting down three German aircraft whilst serving in GB; reaction to treatment of Blacks in South Africa. REEL 3 Continues: story of commanding officer blocking Blencowe’s transfer to India; promotion to warrant officer at newly formed Air Bombardier School; flying duties as bombing instructor; story of training pilots for bombing role in Transvaal; training crews with operational experience; question of losses of RAF boy entrants. Marriage and return to GB, 1946; instructor duties training Dutch aircrews at RAF Langham, Norfolk, 1946- 1947; story of Dutch shooting cats and dogs on station; treatment of Blencowe’s wife by Dutch; reasons for return to South Africa. Background to post war career. REEL 4 Continues: political situation in South Africa in 1950’s – 1960’s; question of treatment of ex-servicemen; question of South Africa’s future in Commonwealth; explanation of ‘Moths’ organisation.

From BFA Newsletter

Another Andrew Blencowe wrote: ‘My father Joseph was in the R.A.F. and was posted to South Africa during the war where he met and married my mother Joan Clarke. My six brothers and sisters are still living in Cape Town and one of them is a grandmother. I left South Africa in 1987 and after a couple of years in Bristol moved to Sydney where I met and married Alyson Todd; we have two daughters.’