Profile

BLANCHETT, Thomas Buller
(Service number N/N)

Aliases	Enlisted as Thomas BLANCHETTE. Birth registration BLANCHETT.
First Rank		Last Rank

Birth

Date	5 August 1900	Place of Birth	Timaru

Enlistment Information

Date	23 September 1918	Age	18 years
Address at Enlistment	Mokoia, Hawera
Occupation	Bulletmaker
Previous Military Experience
Marital Status	Single
Next of Kin
Religion	Presbyterian
Medical Information	Height 5 feet 5 inches. Weight 127 pounds. Class A.

Military Service

Served with	NZ Armed Forces	Served in	Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation
Unit, Squadron, or Ship
Date
Transport
Embarked From		Destination

Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With

Military Awards

Campaigns
Service Medals
Military Awards

Award Circumstances and Date

No information

Prisoner of War Information

Date of Capture
Where Captured and by Whom
Actions Prior to Capture
PoW Serial Number
PoW Camps
Days Interned
Liberation Date

Discharge

Date		Reason

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

Post-war Occupations

Cheesemaker; Fitter

Death

Date	19 March 1973	Age	72 years
Place of Death	Auckland
Cause
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery	Cremated Waikumete
Memorial Reference
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

Thomas Buller Blanchette was the only child of Thomas Blanchett and his first wife, Florence Elizabeth née Scott. He was christened on 30 December 1900 at St Mary's Timaru. His parents seem to have, on occasion, used the spelling Blanchette from the early 1900s. Thomas junior was educated at Timaru South and Timaru Main schools.

He put his age up by two years when he attested for war service. Thomas was married in 1921 to Kathleen May Bensemann, by whom he had a family. They later divorced and he remarried before World War II, to Dorothea Eileen Mudgway.In April 1939 he was in arrears with maintenance due to his wife and was to serve a prison term if the maintenance was not paid off. The following month Kathleen M. Blanchette petitioned for divorce on the ground of separation for the statutary period.

Thomas played cricket and euchre, he performed well in ballroom dancing, was a Lodge member, and frequently performed the duties of MC, Thomas Blanchette was approved as a member of the Levin Fire Brigade, on the Superintendent’s recommendation, in June 1932. In 1937 he received a five-year medal to mark the completion of five years’ service. The following year he transferred to the Shannon Brigade. His father served in World War I under a false name. Thomas junior went on to serve in World War II.

Sources

NZBDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [12 November 2019]; School Admission records (South Canterbury Branch NZSG) [12 November 2019]; Waikumete Cremation record [12 November 2019]; Dominion, 28 August 1919, Horowhenua Chronicle, 25 June 1932, 30 April 1937, 29 April 1938, 6 April 1939, Manawatu Standard, 12 May 1939 (Papers Past) [12 & 13 November 2019]

External Links

Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, SC branch NZSG

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License unless otherwise stated.

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