Ernest was born in Derbyshire, England, on the 10th of March 1881. His father, Ernest, produced soap and was a successful man, employing 7 people. The family was relatively affluent at the time of Ernest’s birth, with 3 servants working for the family. The family moved to Devon when he was young, and he studied at Sherborne School, was a keen sportsman and made Lance Corporal with the school cadets. After spending some time in Canada, he would return to Britain and marry Ellen Mary Blaude Edwards on the 1st of March 1910 and they would have a daughter, Eileen in December 1912.
Upon the outbreak of war, Ernest changed his name from Blencowe-Gottwaltz to Blencowe-Blencowe, the reason is unknown, but the battalion history states that it was ‘a precaution against enemy capture’. He was posted to the 6th (service) battalion of the Dorsetshire Regiment, where of the 30 other officers, 5 were alumni of Sherborne. One of his fellow officers was Geoffrey O’Hanlon who was the author of the battalion history and a housemaster at Sherborne school. Ernest was promoted to Captain within a few months and when the 6th Battalion embarked at Folkestone on the 13th of July 1915, he was listed as O.C. of ‘A’ Company (Coy).
The 6th were carried to France on the St Cecilia and landed in Boulogne, France at 3 a.m. on the 14th and marched to Lumbres near St Omer. The Men were issued with respirators and received their first pay in Francs. The Battalion was to march towards Ypres where it was to take up position on the line. The 1st Battalion was here a few months earlier, where they had been witnessed to one of the first gas attacks at Hill 60, only 72 men of the 1st Battalion would survive.* Between July 1915 when the 6th Battalion arrived in Belgium and until the action at The Buff in February 1916 the battalion spent on and off the line. They would face horrendous conditions. They would be hit with artillery and gas from the enemy, all the while being only eight to twenty-five yards from them. The battalion history paints a grim picture of their time on the line, ‘you could pick up a derelict boot and find it full, or study at ease the anatomy of the human skull.’ The weather also didn’t help; between July 14th and November 30th it would rain on 47 days of those days.
The 6th Dorsets were taken off the line in early January and by all account returned to a ‘spick and span’ condition. They would remain off the line until the operation on The Buff. On the 14th of February 1916 the 6th Dorsets were ordered to begin marching to the front line as the Germans had captured the British front-line trenches and a counterattack was being organised to retake them. The plan of attack for the recapture of the trenches was simple. On the 16th of February, A and C coy were to mount a frontal assault on the trenches under the command of Major Huges-Onslow. A coy, under the command of Blencowe, deployed themselves 450 yards from the enemy trench and things immediately started to go wrong. While deploying A coy came under intense shell fire and started sustaining casualties, one of the casualties was Major Huges-Onslow. In response to this, Blencowe was placed in command of the attack and moved forward. The going was tough, large shell craters, difficult mud and water in combination with thick undergrowth entwined with wire made fast movement impossible. During their advance A coy discovered a new trench system unexpectedly and was met by substantial machine gun and rifle fire as well as bombs. An attempt was made to charge the trench but was largely unsuccessful as wire held them up. It is in this attack that Captain Blencowe is believed to have been killed. The battalion history states that he fell at the limit of the advance, shot through the heart. All officers had now been killed or wounded and the battalion retired back to trenches.
Cpt Blencowe was among the 140 men Killed, wounded or missing in action from the Dorsets on the 16th. His body was lost in the confusion of the battle and after the war he was remembered on the Menin Gate. Over 54,000 men are named here, there bodies lost in the horrors of war. He would be mentioned in dispatches and awarded the 14/15 Star, the British War and Victory Medal.
109 years would pass until researchers stumbled across a record dated the 2nd of March 1916. The Battalion war diary states that the trenches lost on the 14th of February had been retaken, other sources indicate that Cpt Blencowe’s body was recovered from the battlefield and taken to the medical station behind the line. In the confusion of recovered bodies and wounded being admitted, the identity tags were removed from some bodies and lost. However, it was known that the Dorset officer that was admitted was buried in Bedford House Cemetery and was Cpt Blencowe. For 109 years he had been buried in a grave marked “AN OFFICER OF THE GREAT WAR, DORSETSHIRE REGIMENT”. On the 11/06/2025, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission held a rededication ceremony with representatives from the Regimental Association and The Rifles present. A new headstone was produced with his name inscribed, ensuring that future generations will know of his sacrifice.
We will remember them.
Bibliography.
Bladensburg, R. (2007). HISTORY OF THE DORSETSHIRE REGIMENT 1914 – 1919 Volume 3. (Available HERE)
Francis, P. (2014). Vivat Shirburnia Sherborne School and the Great War, 1914-1918.
The Old Shirburnian Society. (2025). Grave of First World War OS soldier identified. [online] Available at: https://oldshirburnian.org.uk/school-archives-news/grave-of-first-world-war-os-soldier-identified/.
*An account of the gas attack on the first battalion is well documented in the book ‘A Sergeant-Majors War’ by Ernest Shepard. (Available HERE)