#2324, Charles Hubert Boulby BLOUNT

Born	26 Oct 1893 in Kamptee, Maharashtra, India
Died	23 Oct 1940 in Hendon, Middlesex
Occupation	Soldier, Airman and first-class cricketer
Education	CRICKET. Blount played cricket for Harrow against Eton in 1910, 1911 & 1912 losing each time. The 1910 Eton v Harrow match became known as Fowler's match, after the Eton captain, Robert St. Leger Fowler, whose outstanding all-round batting and bowling performance allowed Eton to win the match by 9 runs despite being asked to follow on early on the second day, 165 runs in arrears after their first innings. The teams included one schoolboy who would become a field-marshal (Harold Alexander), another an air vice-marshal (Blount), and a third an attorney-general (Walter Monckton). Blount was wicket-keeper in the 1911 match, and captain in 1912, he scored 137 runs in the second innings of the 1912 match, but could not prevent Eton winning by 6 wickets. He played six matches for Suffolk in the Minor Counties Championship between 1910 and 1912, for I Zingari against Harrow in 1921, and for Free Foresters against Harrow in 1937. He also played 10 first-class matches between 1920 and 1930, four for the Combined Services and six for the Royal Air Force, scoring 575 runs at an average of 33.8 including his maiden century in his last first-class match against the Army in 1930, and took 12 wickets at an average of 25.3. His name is recorded on the roll of honour at Lords.

Father	Charles Hubert BLOUNT (1855 - 1900)
Mother	Mary Elizabeth BELL (1867 - ?)

Charles learned to fly at the Military School, Norwich in a Maurice Firman Biplane and was awarded his certificate in March 1916. By 1918 he was a Lt.Col. in the RAF and his marriage announcement in Flight Magazine indicates that he progressed pretty rapidly through the higher ranks of the Air Force.

As a member of the MCC, he is also recorded on the Roll of Honour at Lords Cricket Ground. By the time of WW2, Charles had risen to Air Vice Marshal. He was one of the main controllers of the British Air Force in France. Ironically, like his half-brother John Hillier Blount, Charles also died in an accidental air crash. He was killed in an accident at Hendon Aerodrome on a flight to Belfast. A newspaper report of 27th October 1940 states that "The plane failed to gain height and hit a tree, after taking off. It skimmed the roof of some houses, stripping off tiles and crashed into a garden, damaging two other planes. The plane then caught fire".

His two other brothers also fell on war service. Capt. Greville Hubert Robins Blount Royal Field Artillery was killed 23. 9. 1914 aged 33. He was interred St. Nazaire, France. 2nd Lt. John Hillier Bount RN was killed in an air crash near Beverly on 6. 7. 1918. He was interred at the church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Felixstowe. Charles and Beatrice had 2 sons.

Greville (1883-1915) had a son, Hubert (1909-1979) who married Marion (Polly) Barclay. Marion's grandfather was Joseph Gurney Barclay (1816-1898; his 2nd wife was Margaret Exton, daughter of William Exton and Mary Ransom (1793-1860). It is her great great grandfather, Richard Ransome who is alleged to be related to the Suffolk Ransoms and the Hitchin Ransomes and the author Arthur M Ransome (Born in Leeds). Greville is e great-grandfather of the singer, James Blunt.

Timeline

Born

Death of Mother, Mary Elizabeth BELL

Death of Father, Charles Hubert BLOUNT

Married Beatrice Joan LEMPRIERE in Kensington, London

Birth of Son, Christopher Charles BLOUNT

Died 1940