Third Officer Leslie Robinson BLENKINSOPP M.N.1919 – 1940

137537 Third Officer Leslie R. Blenkinsopp Merchant Navy, S.S. Kyleglen was lost at sea “supposed drowned, missing since 15 December 1940” [1], aged 21 and is commemorated at Panel 62, the Tower Hill Memorial, London,[2] the Butterknowle War Memorial and the memorial plaque, St. John the Evangelist Church, Lynesack.

Family Details

Leslie Robinson Blenkinsopp was born about 1919 in Glasgow, Scotland [3], the son of Harold and Mary Blenkinsopp.  In 1939, the family lived at 7 Etherley Dene, Bishop Auckland and Harold worked as a coal miner [surface worker].[4]  Harold previously lived at Copley Lane near Butterknowle with his step father John Robinson and mother Mary Robinson.[5]  When Lesley joined the merchant navy, his recorded home address was Fellview, Butterknowle [his grandmother’ address] and his father’s address was 2 Mason Terrace, Etherley Lane, Bishop Auckland.[6]

Service Details

Cargo ship, S.S. Kyleglen under Master Thomas Storer was sailing from Middlesbrough to Baltimore[7] and 12 December 1940, dispersed from convoy OB-256.  About 300 miles west of Rockall, at 08.16 hours on 14 December 1940, she was hit on the port side amidships by a torpedo from U-100.  The U-boat captain [Schepke] observed how the vessel, misidentified as Imperial Valley, settled by the stern and the crew abandoned ship in the lifeboats.  At 09.06 hours, Schepke fired another torpedo from the stern tube as “coup de grâce”, which struck Kyleglen on the port side underneath the aft mast.  The ship sank quickly by the stern. The lifeboats were never seen again.  The master and 35 crew members were lost.[8]

Commemoration

Third Officer Leslie R. Blenkinsopp is commemorated at Panel 62, the Tower Hill Memorial, London which commemorates almost 24,000 merchant seamen who lost their lives during the Second World War,[9] the Butterknowle War Memorial and the memorial plaque, St. John the Evangelist Church, Lynesack.

REFERENCES

[1] UK Merchant Seaman Deaths 1939-1953 card index

[2] Commonwealth War Graves Commission

[3] UK Merchant Seaman Deaths 1939-1953 card index

[4] 1939 England & Wales Register

[5] 1911 census

[6] UK Merchant Seaman Deaths 1939-1953 card index

[7] https://ne-diary.genuki.uk/Inc/ISeq_11.html

[8] https://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ship/719.html

[9] Commonwealth War Graves Commission