Talland Church Headstones

Memorial 63

~ Two white marble plaques with carved dedications to father & sons

~ Orientation ~ South Wall ~ 50 x 87 cm & 34 x 89 cm // 1’8″ x 2’10” & 1’1″ x 2’11”

All three sons of Thomas and Mary Blatchford were born in Lanlivery, Cornwall, and all three sons take their mother’s maiden name (Stick) as a middle Christian name. 

Joseph Stick Blatchford was born in 1853, he was a Merchant Mariner and died at the age of 27 years, after an accident with a tow line, whilst on a voyage to Quebec on 29 May 1880.

John Stick Blatchford was born on 20th March 1856, he gained his Master Mariner certificates of a Square Rigged vessel in 1882 & 1885; his address was given as Sea View Cottage, Talland. He married in 1866 and he died at sea, in the Pacific, in 1892.

Thomas Stick Blatchford’s date of birth suggests he was born in 1850, according to this plaque, but on the “Royal Navy Registers of Seaman’s Service’ his date of birth reads 20th September 1853. He joined on 20th September 1871 for 10years service and re-enlisted as ‘Seaman Riggers’ – a reserve of ‘prime seamen lately paid off, to be constantly ready for immediate service’. The census of 1881 sees him as Capt. Qr Deck aged 28 years, in Hong Kong aboard ‘Iron Duke’ a 2nd Rate Iron Clad Frigate stationed in China with a total of 549 sailors aboard. The 1891 census shows him as a married seaman with a 10 month daughter living in Stoke Damerel. At the time of his discharge 8th January 1893, he was serving on the ship ‘Impregnable’, then a training ship in Devonport. He died two months later.

Registers for ‘Deaths at Sea’, Maters & Mates Certificates, Oversea Deaths, Census, Seaman’s Services. Navel Social History & HMS Impregnable.