Wilson BLACKETT, PRIVATE 14070

* Born: 1897 at Blackwell
* Son of: Thomas and Mary Ann Blackett
* Local Address: Ovington, Winston
* Father's Occupation: Farmer
* Siblings: Six brothers, two sisters, position in family 7
* Pre-War Occupation: At school aged 12 in 1911
* Enlisted: 26 September 1914 at Darlington
* Regiment: 2nd Battalion, Border Regiment
* Died: Killed in action, Tuesday, 29 November, 1915
* Age: 18
* Buried: Le Touret Military Cemetery, Richebourg-L'Avoue, France

Wilson Blackett was born in 1896 at Blackwell near Darlington, the son of Thomas Blackett, a foreman mason, and his wife Mary Ann. Thomas Blackett had been born in Cockfield in 1856 and had married Mary Ann Watson in Auckland Registration District in 1879. Thomas and Mary Ann had nine children, seven boys and two girls, born between 1880 and 1902. The censuses and birth records show that the family lived in various places, the children being born in different locations in the north-east England including Byker in Northumberland and Kirkby Ravensworth in North Yorkshire. In 1901, Thomas and Mary Ann lived at Springfield House, close to St Paul’s Church, North Road, Darlington with eight of their children, but at the time of the 1911 census the family lived at Rosey Hill Farm, near Catterick.

Wilson Blackett’s service record does not exist, so we know little about his Army career. However we do know that he joined 2/Border Regiment. 2/Border was a battalion of the Regular Army and was in Pembroke Dock in August 1914 when war was declared. The battalion marched to camp at Lyndhurst, Hampshire on 5 September, sailing from Southampton to Zeebrugge on 4 October. The battalion remained on the Western Front for over three years before moving to the Italian Front. As part of 20th Brigade, 2/Border was engaged in heavy fighting at Langemarck and Gheluvelt during the First Battle of Ypres in October and November 1914.

Wilson Blackett’s Medal Index Card shows that on 5 October 1915 he entered France to join the battalion. The Battalion War Diary records that a group of fifty trained recruits and an officer joined the battalion on this date, while engaged in the Battle of Loos. This would have followed basic training in England so we can assume that Wilson enlisted during the early months of 1915, quite possibly on or soon after his 18th birthday. Two months after arriving in France, Wilson Blackett was dead.

The Battalion War Diary does not record in any detail what happened on the day that Wilson Blackett was killed. It simply states:

“25/11/15 to 30/11/15. The Battalion remained in trenches (Casualties 5 killed 7 wounded). Lieutenant-Colonel E. Thorpe. Commanding 2nd Bn Border Regiment”.

The trenches referred to were east of Festubert, about 25km south-west of Lille.

Wilson Blackett’s Medal Index Card shows that he was awarded the 1915 Star, the Victory Medal and the British Medal. The Commonwealth War Graves certificate records that his parents were living at Ovington, Winston and Soldiers Who Died in the Great War gives his address as Ravensworth (near Richmond). The Blackett family must have had a sufficiently strong connection with Haughton-le-Skerne for Wilson to be commemorated both on the War Memorial Cross and on the Brass Memorial Plaque in St Andrew’s Church, but there is no evidence of what that connection was. It would seem certain that Wilson was a member of the St Andrew’s congregation at some stage in order to have been named as one of the 27 of the congregation and parish who fell in the Great War, and are named on the plaque. Wilson Blackett is also commemorated on a Brass Memorial Plaque in the Church of Saint Peter and Saint Felix, Kirkby Ravensworth, near Richmond.

Wilson’s elder brother Metcalfe died in 1916 aged 25 but the other seven siblings lived into old age. Wilson Blackett’s parents Thomas and Mary Ann died a year apart in the early 1950s. Both were over 90 years of age.