Biography of Reverend John Walcott Blencowe, founder of Brambletye School in 1919

John Walcot Blencowe (1886-1964 ) was the son of the Reverend Alfred Blencowe, a Canon of Chester Cathedral and Rector of West Kirby, Cheshire. He was educated at Radley College in Oxfordshire and Oriel College, Oxford, graduating in 1908. In 1909 he joined the Melanesian Mission as a teacher. Soon after his arrival he had an accident, which necessitated his return to England, but in 1910 he sailed back to the Pacific. He was mostly based at Santa Cruz in the Solomon Islands. In 1911 he had another serious accident when a leaking whale-boat overturned on a coral reef and he was flung onto rocks. With a broken collar bone and ribs, he was marooned on an island for six weeks before being rescued by the mission ship Southern Cross.

He was treated in New Zealand and returned to England in 1912. Blencowe intended to return to the Pacific, but decided first to take holy orders. He attended Cuddesdon Theological College and was ordained a deacon in 1913 and a priest in 1914. In World War I he joined the Army as a chaplain and in 1915 served at the Dardanelles. In France he served with the 2nd Devonshire Regiment and he was present at the Battle of the Somme in 1916. He was buried by a shell explosion and only just survived. Invalided home, he was chaplain at Queen Mary’s Hospital at Sidcup, Kent.

His disabilities prevented him from returning to the Melanesian Mission and he was persuaded to take up school teaching. In 1919 he opened a boys’ preparatory school at Sidcup Place. In 1925 he married Monica Long, who assisted him with the school. In 1933 they decided to move to Brambletye, near East Grinstead in Sussex. During World War II the school buildings were requisitioned by the Army and the school was moved to Lynton in Devon. It returned to Brambletye in 1945 and the Blencowes had the arduous task of restoring it to working order. They retired in 1947. Their son Peter was headmaster of Brambletye School in 1958-75. In retirement, Blencowe moved to Chagford and later Pewsey in Wiltshire. Shortly before his death, he returned to Sussex and settled at Piltdown. His book Thoughts we all share was written in the last two or three years of his life for old boys of Brambletye School and was published posthumously.