John Blandy was born on 3rd March 1911 in St.Helier, Jersey to Claude and Juanita Blandy. His father was a captain in the Royal Jersey Artillery. In 1914 the family was in Victoria, British Colombia, where his younger brother Peter was born.

By 1916 the family were living at Woodside, Sandhurst, Crowthorne. His father died of pneumonia at the age of 36 on 8 April 1916 while serving in the Royal Field Artillery in France.

At the start of the war, John was working as a merchant.

John was taken prisoner while serving in the Far East as Regimental Quartermaster Sergeant with the Straits Settlements Volunteer Force, and was held in a PoW camp in Malaya. He became ill while working on the Thailand-Burma Railway and died on 30th November 1943 at the Kamburi Hospital in Thailand. The cause of death was listed as cardiac beri beri, dysentry and tropical ulcers.

John rests in the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, Thailand.