Regimental number | 710 |
Place of birth | Norton, Doncaster, Yorkshire, England |
School | Rotherham, Yorkshire, England |
Age on arrival in Australia | 18 |
Religion | Church of England |
Occupation | Miner |
Marital status | Single |
Age at embarkation | 20 |
Next of kin | Mother, Mrs J Blenkinsop, 20 Newport Avenue, Selby, Yorkshire, England |
Previous military service | Nil |
Enlistment date | |
Rank on enlistment | Private |
Unit name | 13th Battalion, G Company |
AWM Embarkation Roll number | 23/30/1 |
Embarkation details | Unit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board TRANSPORT A38 Ulysses on |
Rank from Nominal Roll | Private |
Unit from Nominal Roll | 45th Battalion |
Recommendations (Medals and Awards) |
Military Medal Recommendation date: |
Fate | Killed in Action |
Place of death or wounding | Messines, Belgium |
Age at death | 23 |
Place of burial | No known grave |
Commemoration details | The Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 27), Belgium The Menin Gate Memorial (so named because the road led to the town of Menin) was constructed on the site of a gateway in the eastern walls of the old Flemish town of Ypres, Belgium, where hundreds of thousands of allied troops passed on their way to the front, the Ypres salient, the site from April 1915 to the end of the war of some of the fiercest fighting of the war. The Memorial was conceived as a monument to the 350,000 men of the British Empire who fought in the campaign. Inside the arch, on tablets of Portland stone, are inscribed the names of 56,000 men, including 6,178 Australians, who served in the Ypres campaign and who have no known grave. The opening of the Menin Gate Memorial on 24 July 1927 so moved the Australian artist Will Longstaff that he painted 'The Menin Gate at Midnight', which portrays a ghostly army of the dead marching past the Menin Gate. The painting now hangs in the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, at the entrance of which are two medieval stone lions presented to the Memorial by the City of Ypres in 1936. Since the 1930s, with the brief interval of the German occupation in the Second World War, the City of Ypres has conducted a ceremony at the Memorial at dusk each evening to commemorate those who died in the Ypres campaign. |
Panel number, Roll of Honour, Australian War Memorial | 139 |
Medals |
Military Medal 'On the night of the 19th and 20th August, 1915, Sergeant BLENKINSOP (then Corporal of "D" Company 13th Battalion A.I.F.) was sent out to gain information as to the nature of the country in front, in view of an attack by the 13th Battalion on the 21st August. This work was carried out by him very skilfully in face of considerable danger and the information gained was of considerable use in the attack that followed.'
Source: 'Commonwealth Gazette' No. 62 Date: |
Other details |
War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front Medals: Military Medal, 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal |