Allan Boyle de Blaquiere

Sub Lieutenant Allan Boyle de Blaquiere was born on March 28th 1895, in Wellow, Somerset, about 5 miles south of Bath. He was the youngest of three children born to William de Blaquiere and Marie Lucienne Henriette Adine de Blaquiere (née Desbarats). His mother was French Canadian, born in Montreal, Quebec, daughter of George Desbarats, a printer and publisher. His father, 6th Baron de Blaquiere of Ardkill, was born in Ontario, Canada. The couple married at Christchurch Cathedral Montreal on the 25th of January 1888. Their first child John was born in Montreal on the 1st of August 1889.

By the time of the 1891 census the family had moved to England and were living at 1 Park Lane, Walcot, Bath, Somerset. Their second child Kathleen was born on the 17th of February 1891 in Walcot. In 1901 when the census was taken the family was at 1 The Circus, Bath.

Sub Lieutenenat de Blaquere became midshipman in January 1913, being promoted to Sub Lieutenant in October 1915. He served in HMS Lion in the Battle of Heligoland 28th August, 1914 and was second in command of a destroyer in the Battle of Jutland.

Allan had joined H.M.S. Laurentic, for passage to join H.M.S. Antrim. Shortly after the Laurentic had struck the two mines, Captain Norton had ordered him down to the Engine Room to assess the damage. Accompanying him with a torch was Chief Steward Porter. The two men later returned and informed Captain Norton that the Engine Room was flooded and that they had seen no one. What is not clear is whether Sub Lieutenant de Blaquiere managed to get to a lifeboat. His body was never recovered. He is remembered on the the Chatham Naval Memorial, Kent, and on his parent’s grave in Bath Abbey Cemetery.

Inscription on parent’s grave Bath Abbey cemetery
SUBLIEUT THE HONOURABLE
ALAN BOYLE de BL[A]QUIERE. R.N.
YOUNGEST SON OF WILLIAM
6TH BARON de BLAQUIERE OF ARDKILL
BORN MARCH 29TH 1895
SERVED IN EUROPEAN WAR 1914 – 1917
H.M.S. LION
HELIGOLAND BIGHT.
DOGGER BANK.
JUTLAND. H.M.S. AMBUSCADE, T.B.D.
LOST IN H.M.S. LAURENTIC
THROUGH ENEMY ACTION JANUARY 25TH 1917

His elder brother Lieutenant John De Blaquiere, 2nd Bttn. Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), was killed in action at Neuve Chapelle, France in March, 1915. With the death of his brother Allan Boyle de Blaquiere had became the only surviving male heir so with the death of his father in July 1920 the title of Lord de Blaquiere became extinct.