| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Oscar Blanchard was born in Malton in 1894. He was the eldest child of John William and Elizabeth Blanchard. The family moved to Hornsea where further children were born. In 1911 Oscar, aged 17 was employed as a cowman on a farm in Bewholme Road, Hornsea, prior to War he moved to London and joined the Metropolitan Police Force.
Oscar enlisted in the 2nd Battalion of the Gordon Highlanders at St Pancras in Jul 1915 and embarked for France in Oct 1915. An item in the Beverley Guardian dated 20 May 1916, stated that "Mr. J. W. Blanchard of Southgate, Hornsea, received a message on Thursday morning that his eldest son, Private Oscar Blanchard, 2nd Gordon Highlanders, had been admitted to hospital last Friday suffering from wounds in the head and that he rapidly got worse and died on Sunday, being unconscious all the time". Oscar died of his wounds on 13 May 1916 aged 22. He was awarded the British War and Victory Medals and the 1915 Star, and he is "Remembered with Honour" at La Neuville Communal Cemetery, Corbie, where he was buried. He is also commemorated on the War Memorial in the Hornsea Garden of Remembrance.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |