On Tower Hill Memorial, London is the name of Third Officer Leslie R. Blenkinsopp serving on S.S. Kyleglen (Liverpool) with the Merchant Navy who died 15/12/1940.

He was the son of Harold and Mary Dawson Blenkinsopp.

Jean Longstagg has submitted the following:-
Leslie Robinson Blenkinsopp was born on 14th August 1918 in Hamsterley, (although his service documents say Glasgow) the son of Harold and Mary Dawson (nee Simpson) Blenkinsopp, who had married in 1917.  In 1921 the family lived at 3 Potter’s Cross, Butterknowle and father Harold worked as an engineman for Quarry Drift Colliery Company at Etherley Dene Colliery.  By 1939, Leslie’s address was 7 Potter’s Cross, Butterknowle while his parents lived at 7 Etherley Dene, Bishop Auckland.  When Lesley joined the Merchant Navy, his recorded home address was Fellview, Butterknowle, his grandmother’s address, and his father’s address was 2 Mason Terrace, Etherley Lane, Bishop Auckland.

Kevin Richardson has provided the following service information:
The unescorted cargo ship S.S. Kyleglen under Master Thomas Storer was sailing from Middlesbrough to Baltimore, U.S.A. on 12 December 1940, having left 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, wrongly identified as Imperial Valley, settled by the stern and the crew abandoned ship in the lifeboats.  At 09.06 hours, Schepke fired another torpedo, which struck Kyleglen on the port side underneath the aft mast and she quickly sank. The lifeboats were never seen again.  The master and 35 crew members were lost.

 Leslie Robinson Blenkinsopp is remembered at Butterknowle on B156.01 as Blenkinsop, at Lynesack on L70.02 and on our List of Ships’ Crews.