The General: Cyril Aubrey Blacklock (1880-1936)

Cyril Aubrey Blacklock (1880-1936)

Dominating Knowles Cemetery in Walsingham Township, Norfolk Country, Ontario is the gravestone of Major-General Cyril Aubrey Blacklock. 

Blacklock, the second son of Joseph Herbert Blacklock (1855-1935) and Julia Corser (1855-1935), was born at Highlands, Tadmarton, Oxfordshire, a few kilometres west of Banbury. He was baptised at St. Nicholas, Tadmarton on 7 Nov 1880. The family was living in Tadmarton at the time of the 1881 Census but by 1888 had moved to Overthorpe House in the parish of Middleton Cheney, Northhamptonshire, a few kilometres east of Banbury.

Blacklock in 1917

Blacklock was educated at Eton College and afterwards joined the militia as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. On 5 Jan 1901, during the Second Boer War (1899-1902), Blacklock was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 4th Battalion of the Kings Royal Rifle Corps. He was promoted to Lieutenant shortly after the 4th Battalion had sailed from England on 9 Dec 1901. Upon arrival in South Africa, the battalion was sent to reinforce Lieutenant General Leslie Rundle's command in the Orange River Colony. The 4th operated mostly in the Harrismith area until the end of the war.

Blacklock returned home in Oct 1902 and on 23 Apr 1904 resigned his commission. He then emigrated to Canada where in 1911 he was employed as a miner in South Porcupine, Ontario. A few years later he was in Seattle, Washington where he married Rowena Kathleen Vincent on 29 Mar 1913. Rowena had been born at Bracebridge in the Muskoka region of Ontario. Their daughter, Julia Audrey Elizabeth Blacklock (1914-1948), was born in Seattle the following year.

When WW1 broke out in August of 1914, Blacklock decided to rejoin the British Army. He likely brought Rowena and Julia to Canada to live with her parents, then sailed to England. He arrived at Liverpool on 31 Oct 1914, rejoined the Kings Royal Rifle Corps on 4 Nov 1914, and was immediately promoted to captain. Blacklock was assigned to the 10th (Service) Battalion.

High Street of Guillemont, 3 Sep 1916

When the 10th Battalion was sent to France in July 1915, Blacklock was already a major, having been promoted the previous December. In Oct 1915 he was appointed second in command of the 10th. Blacklock was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel and appointed Commanding Officer of the 10th in Dec 1915. He was mentioned in dispatches as early as January 1916, and received the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) in June 1916, although the circumstances of his award are not known.

Blacklock served as the commanding officer of the 10th Battalion until wounded at the Battle of Guillemont on 3 Sep 1916. His actions during the battle earned him a Bar to the Distinguished Service Order. The citation for his bar reads as follows:

When in command of the left attack of the brigade, considerable bodies of the enemy emerged from underground defences in rear of the brigade. He at once detached parties to deal with the situation, thereby enabling the attack to be successfully carried out. Later he captured and consolidated five consecutive objectives, displaying the greatest courage and initiative.

Having recovered from his injuries, Blacklock was promoted to the temporary rank of Brigadier General in Feb 1917 and given command of the 186nd Brigade. A month later he was transferred to the 97th Brigade, part of the 32nd Division. The 32nd Division saw extensive action during the Battle of Passchendale.

In A Moonlight Massacre: The Night Operation on the Passchendaele Ridge, 2nd December 1917, Michael Stephen LoCicero describes Brigadier Blacklock as:

One of a small number of “exotics‟ who managed to reach generals’ rank despite their civilian status at the start of the First World War.... The latter favoured calculated aggression, and was a proponent of “careful planning and proper preparation against facsimile objectives before carrying out attacks." To this end, “special measures were taken to ensure that every officer and man not only understood the object of the scheme of operations, but also knew the definite part he himself had to play”.

On 1 Jan 1918, Blacklock was invested as a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George. A year later he was invested as a Companion of the Order of the Bath, and was awarded the Croix de Guerre by the French in August 1919.   

Recruitment Poster for the
Royal Naval Division

On March 30th, 1918 Blacklock was promoted to Major-General. He was appointed commanding officer of the 39th Division, after briefly serving as commanding officer of the 9th Scotish Division. The 39th Division suffered heavy losses during the Battle of the Lys in April and was afterwards reduced to a training cadre.

On August 30th, 1918, Blacklock was transferred to the 63rd (Royal Naval) Division, and commanded the division during the Hundred Days Offensive.

Blacklock retired from the British Army in 1920 and returned to Canada. For a few years he lived with Rowena and Julia on Indian Road in the Parkdale neighbourhood of Toronto. In 1924 the family moved to Port Rowan on the north shore of Lake Erie in Norfolk County.

Blacklock died in hospital in Simcoe, Ontario on 14 Oct 1936, two weeks after surgery for a gangrenous appendix. His wife Rowena survived him by three years.