Henry Charles Adolphus Blishen

Area Commander of IOW and Group Commander of Group 9. In 1939 he was a Special Constable. He was awarded MBE for his service to the Home Guard in Dec 1944.

Blishen had Athenry (name changed to Marlpit, now Arreton) House built for himself in 1936. It was camouflaged during the war due to the hilltop location with khaki and green paint. The garage of the house was used to store weapons, ammunition and grenades. There seems to have been no recall of stores at stand down as there were still grenades and their primers there after the war. Blishen's young son, Tim once put one down a rabbit hole on Arreton Down. He said it made a very satisfying crump and was lucky not to have been killed or injured.

In October 1941, he was listed as one of the Captains of the 20th (East Wight) Battalion attending the funeral of Lieut Bull, an officer of the Battalion who died in a car crash during a Home Guard exercise. This was before 203 (GHQ Reserve) Battalion was created while the Auxiliary Units men were nominally attached to the local Battalion HQ.

The family don't recall any training taking place at Athenry and consider the grounds would have been too small at the time.

A WW1 veteran he served in Royal Field Artillery from 2 April 1908, entering France 14 Dec 1915. He was awarded the 15 Star, British and Victory medals. Serving as Warrant Officer Class 2 until 24 April 1919 he served in the Territorial Force until 16 Nov 1925.