Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

Egypt was the base for the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force which was engaged in the region, primarily against the Turks. In the early stages of the war Egypt was threatened by Turkish advances towards Suez which were defeated and the Turks retreated to Palestine. Most of the effort of the MEF was thereafter directed towards operations in Palestine and Syria. Many of those buried and commemorated in Egypt succumbed to wounds, disease or were army victims of naval actions in the region.

Detail :

Chaplain 1st Class; Army Chaplains’ Dept; attd Middlesex Hussars; 16/6/1915 aged 50 ; Ismalia War Memorial Cmy, Egypt;

De Ruvigny's: "BLAKEWAY, COL. THE REV. PHILIP JOHN THOMAS M.A., T.D., Chaplain, 4th London Mounted Brigade, 2nd Mounted Division, and Vicar of Walberton, Arundel. s. of Philip Edward Blakeway, of 29, Clifton Gardens, Folkestone, by his wife, Maria, dau. of John Wootton; b. London, - March, 1865; educ. Malvern, and Magdelen College, Oxford, and on leaving the latter in 1884 received a commission in the 8th Hussars and joined the regt. in India. After six years he sent in his papers, and went back to Magdelen College, Oxford, and took his degree and was ordained Deacon in 1891 and priest in 1893. After holding curacies in Camberwell, Lambeth and Battersea he was for seven years Chaplain to the Earl of Lathom, and in 1902 became temporary Chaplain to the Forces at Chichester Barracks. In 1903 he was appointed to the rectory of All Saints' Hastings, and in 1907 to the Vicarage of Walberton. Since 1893 he had been Chaplain to the Middlesex Hussars (1st County of London), and when war broke out he applied to go to the Front, and was appointed 1st Class Chaplain with the rank of Colonel. He went out to Egypt with one of the first drafts of troops, and died on active service at Ismalia, 16 June, 1915, of heart failure. He m. at Old Windsor, 10 Aug, 1893, Sibyl Agnes (The Cottage, Halnaker, Chichester), dau of Francis Ricardo, of The Friary, Old Windsor, and 44, Portman Square, W., J.P_.; s.p."

Masonic :

Philip was aged 19 when initiated and passed in Apollo Lodge. He was raised in St Mary Magdelene Lodge No. 1523 when he joined on 27th June 1889. At this London based lodge he is stated to reside at 6 Iffey Place, Oxford and styled as a "Gentleman." He resigned from L1523 on 26th November 1895. He went on to become a founding member of The Middlesex Imperial Yeomanry Lodge No. 3013 at its consecration 3rd December, 1903, resigning from this Lodge 8th February, 1910. At the time of his death, it appears he was not a member of a Lodge and the principal reason why he is not included in the 1921 book.

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The (UK) National Archives
• Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
• ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Additional Source:

• Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
• Researcher : Bruce Littley
• Researcher : Barrie Friend