Margaret Penelope Blencowe was born in Brighton in 1890 and was the daughter of John Ingham Blencowe and Mabel Frances Blencowe, both of whom served their King and Country during the First World War (John in the army and Mabel as the quartermaster of Sussex 54 VAD).

 

The Blencowe family was one of the foremost families living in Chailey during the war years and Margaret's aunt, Frances Isabel Blencowe was commandant of the detachment early in 1914 and after the war had ended.  She was also commandant of Brook House on Chailey Green, a convalescent hospital for RFC officers.

 

Nothing is known of Margaret's VAD service.  She appears in a number of photos taken by Frances and the photographer Foster Ditchling, but here service history remains uclear.  She is noted simply as "nurse" in an un-named and and undated newspaper cutting which is pasted into Edith Oliver's album and that is probably how most of her soldier patients would have known her.

 

The Imperial War Museum's Women at Work collection notes that a Miss M Blencowe worked at the Clothing Branch, Officers' Families Fund 1914-1919 but this may not be Margaret Penelope.