Blois family


The Blois family are major landowners in Suffolk. Sir Gervase Ralph Edmund Blois, 10th Baronet born on 6 June 1901. He was the son of Sir Ralph Barrett MacNaghten Blois, 9th Bt. and Winifred Grace Hegan Kennard. He married, firstly, Audrey Winifred Johnson, daughter of Colonel Harry Johnson, on 20 September 1938. He and Audrey Winifred Johnson were divorced in 1948. He married, secondly, Margaret Lucia White, daughter of Major Hon. Charles James White and Evelyn Bulkeley-Johnson, on 24 April 1948. He died on 22 May 1968 at age 66.
Sir Gervase Ralph Edmund Blois was educated at Wellington College, Berkshire, England and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He was Aide-de-Camp to the Governor of Bengal between 1925 and 1928. He gained the rank of Captain in 1939 in the service of the Scots Guards. He fought in the Second World War and was decorated with the Military Cross in 1944, the Croix de Guerre and the Legion of Honour. He succeeded to the title of 10th Baronet Blois, of Grundisburgh and Cockfield Hall, near Yoxford, Suffolk on 18 March 1950.
The family home was Cockfield Hall near Yoxford in Suffolk, a Grade 1 listed private house standing in of historic parkland, dating from the 16th century. Lady Catherine Grey, sister of Lady Jane Grey, was imprisoned at Cockfield Hall in 1567 to recover from her privations in the Tower of London but died shortly after her arrival and was buried in the Cockfield Chapel in Yoxford church.
The family remain patrons of Blythburgh church, and the current head of the Blois family is still a major landowner in north-east Suffolk. Sir Charles Blois however no longer owns Cockfield Hall. Although the family have lived in the region for several decades they were not given the estate by the landed gentry from Blois following the invasion by the Normans in the 11th century.