BORN HULL 1897. SON OF HARRY BLENKIN & MARIA (HUDSON) AT 47, SEATON STREET, HULL and 8, FINSBURY STREET, FOUNTAIN ROAD, HULL (WAR PENSION ADDRESSES). THEIR OTHER CHILDREN WILFRED & HILDA DIED IN INFANCY. HE JOINED AS TROOPER, 26938, 1ST/1ST EAST RIDING YEOMANRY IN 1912.
HE ENLISTED IN THE 10TH EYR (HULL PALS). KILLED IN ACTION, ON 26/06/1916, AGED 20.
HIS NAME IS LISTED ON THE WILSON LINE CRICKET & ATHLETIC CLUB’S ROLL OF HONOUR.
Hull Pal Memorials write: Born in 1897, George was the only child of Harry and Maria Blenkin of 47 Seaton Street, Hull. George joined the army as a signaller. It was his job to relay information from the front line to the planners at the rear. He’d queued to enlist in the late summer sun of 1st September 1914 joining the fledgling 10th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, ‘The Commercials’, 1st Hull Pals; back when the war was still a big adventure to young men raised on the derring-do of Boy’s Own stories and instilled from birth with the notion of the superiority of the British Empire. George was ripped to shreds by shellfire on 26th June 1916 in the trenches opposite Serre, and is buried at Sucrerie Military Cemetery. He was 20 years old.
Private Beeken recalled that, terrifying though these bombardments were, his comrades stood them pretty well and often in good humour:
“One man stood on the parapet reciting Shakespeare until we brought him down. We all had a good laugh over this”.
My money is on Henry V.
