Person

Frank Blenkinsop enlisted in the Durham Light Infantry (DLI) with his adoptive brother, Norman Fawcett. Although they ended up in different battalions, they would die within three days of each other at the Battle of Arras in 1917.

Frank was born in Stillington in 1886, the fifth of the eight children of Thomas and Christina Blenkinsop (nee Thompson). His father worked in the ironworks in Whitton, where in due course, Frank would also work.

But by the time Frank was 10 years old, both Thomas and Christina were dead, and Frank was taken into the Fawcett family household. Thomas Farrow Fawcett and his wife, Charlotte, lived near the Carlton Iron Works in Ferryhill, where Thomas was the Secretary to the Joint Steel Corporation. They already had five children but brought Frank up as one more of their own when he was orphaned.

Frank was a rising star in the world of iron and steel manufacture, becoming first an accountant, then Company Secretary to Messrs Hanson, Brown & Co. and finally a director of the company.

But on the outbreak of the First World War, Frank promptly enlisted in the New Army with his adopted brother, Norman. On 2 April 1915, Frank was granted a commission as a second lieutenant in the 15th Battalion, DLI.

He left for France on 8 March 1916 but was wounded in action in the Battle of the Somme and was sent back to England to recover. He was back with his men on 9 April 1917, when, on the opening of day of the Battle of Arras, the 15th Battalion, aided by its Division artillery’s use of a rolling barrage, captured the German front line trenches and pressed on, advancing 600 yards to the edge of Shelter Wood.

On 6 May, Frank was killed in action just three days after his brother, Norman, had been killed. The 15th Battalion was holding part of the Hindenburg Line at the time. The worst of the fighting had died down by then but snipers and machine gunners remained active.

Frank was buried in the cemetery at Arras but both he and Norman are commemorated on the headstone of the grave of Thomas, Charlotte & their youngest daughter, Mildred, in St John the Divine’s Church in Stillington. A plaque to the two young men in the nave of the church reads
“They died the noblest death that man can die,
Fighting for God and Right and Liberty”

North East War Memorials Project, page of plaque for Fawcett and Blenkinsop:
http://www.newmp.org.uk/detail.php?contentId=9991

Civil Parish: Stillington

Birth date: 1886

Death date: 06-May-1917

Armed force/civilian: Army

Residence: Whitton, ecclesiastical parish of Stillington St John the Divine (1891)
1 South Street, Whitton (1901)
Carlton Iron Works via Ferryhill (1911)
15 Henry St, Redcar (1914)

Employment: Accounts Clerk, Carlton Iron Works, Ferryhill
Accountant, W B Peart & Co, Middlesbrough
Company Secretary/Director Messrs Hanson, Brown & Co

Family: Father: Thomas Blenkinsop (1851-1896) iron worker at Carlton Iron Works, from Stockton
Mother: Christina (nee Thompson) (1853-1895) from Elton Moor
Siblings: Thomas (b 1879) Mary (b 1880) Jane (b 1881) Annie (b 1893) Lillie (b 1887) John W (b 1890) James W (b 1891)
Adopted parents: Thomas Farrow Fawcett (1859-1923) Ironmaster’s accountant, from Shipton, Yorks, & Charlotte (nee Knott ) (1860-1943)
Their children : Tom (b 1890) Norman (1892-1917) Doris (b 1896) Oswald (b 1900) Mildred (b 1903)

Military service:

second lieutenant
15th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry

Medal(s): British War Medal
Victory Medal

Memorial(s): Arras Memorial Bay 8
DLI Book of Remembrance, Durham Cathedral
Carlton Iron Works, Stillington, cross
Saint John the Divine Church, Morrison Street, Stillington, lecturn
Saint John the Divine Church, Morrison Street, Stillington, plaque to Fawcett and Blenkinsop

Gender: Male

Contributed by Kelloe Visitor, Trimdon Station