Arthur Thomas CHAPMAN

Transcription

1 Arthur Thomas CHAPMAN Date of Birth: 20 April 1873 Address: Surrey. Family: Trevista, The Grove, Coulsdon, Husband of Frederica Ada Chapman. School Record: House: Age: 42 Date of Death: 26 April Service No: Medals: Star. Service Record: Joined 3 rd Bn. East Surrey Regiment as Lieutenant, August Attached to 1 st Bn. Hampshire Regiment 13 September Promoted to Captain 2 February Details of Casualty: Killed in action 26 April 1915, Belgium. Commemorated: Oosttaverne Wood Cemetery, Belgium.

2 Captain Arthur Thomas Chapman 3 rd Bn. East Surrey Regiment, att. 1 st Bn. Hampshire Regiment Arthur was born on 20 April 1873 in Croydon to parents Thomas & Eliza Jane (nee Grover) Chapman and was baptised at St. John the Baptist, Croydon. His time at Whitgift Middle School pre-dates existing records, so we do not know when he attended the School, but after he left he began a military career, joining the Queen s Royal West Surrey Regiment as a Private in From 1893 to 1897 he was a trooper in the Hampshire Carabineers, a Yeomanry unit, before obtaining a commission as Second Lieutenant in 3 rd Battalion King s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment before retiring on grounds of ill-health in On 15 September 1896 Arthur married Frederica Ada Landsberger at St. Michael & All Angels Church, Croydon. Their home was at Fiddlers Grove, Bletchingley, when the 1901 National Census was completed, but by 1911 they had moved to "Trevista", The Grove, Coulsdon, Surrey the start of a long association with that town. At the age of 24 Arthur became Chairman of Messrs. Chapman & Sons, Builders Merchants, of Tamworth Road, Croydon in 1898, having entered his grandfather s business some 12 years earlier. Regarded as one of the founders of modern Coulsdon, his company purchased the land which now forms the Smitham Downs Estate and proceeded to at once develop it. He took an active interest in the formation of the St. Andrew s district in 1906 and on 1 December the vicar, the Revd. F.H. Roberts, asked Arthur to be one of the first wardens of the temporary church. Originally his term ran from New Year s Day to Easter 1907, when he was reported to have had a significant input into a Cake Fair. At time of his death he was still serving as sidesman. It is unclear whether Arthur saw service in South Africa during the Second Boer War ( ) as different records state opposite opinions, but he maintained links with the military and in 1910 helped form the 1 st (Croydon) Surrey Battalion of National Reservists, where he held the rank of Captain in Arthur joined the 3 rd (Reserve) Battalion East Surrey Regiment as a Lieutenant upon the outbreak of war in August 1914, and after a period of training was attached to the Hampshire Regiment on 13 September He disembarked in France (thereby earning the Star), joining his Battalion on Boxing Day, spending winter in the trenches, and was promoted Captain on 2 February Courtesy of Marquis De Ruvigny s Roll of Honour On 22 April 1915 the Germans launched the Second Battle of Ypres with the first use of gas on the Western Front, first against French Colonial units, creating a wide gap in the Allied line, then against Canadian troops two days later.

3 1 st Battalion Hampshire Regiment formed part of 11 Infantry Brigade in 4 th Division under Brigadier-General Hasler and were among reinforcements ordered to the area, leading the Brigade onto the battlefield. On 24 April 1915 the Battalion left Bailleul by train at midday, reaching Poperinghe about 3:15pm before marching to Basse Boom where they were billeted for the night. The Battalion war diary for the following two days reads as follows: - 25 April 1915 Brigade marched at 6am to VLAMERTINGHE and remained till 6:30pm, when Bde. marched up to relieve Canadians N of ZONNEBEKE, reached WIELTJE about 9pm, where guides from Canadian Bde. were to meet 11 th Bde. After waiting for more than an hour the B.G.C. 2 nd Canadian Infantry Brigade arrived but no guides. Little information could be obtained regarding the situation on left of 85 th Bde. where the Canadians had been holding trenches, so Brig. General Hasler Cmdg. 11 th Inf. Bde. decided to send the Hampshire Regt. to occupy a line with its right on 85 th Bde. and extend to its left to meet the other 3 Bns. of the Bde. which were to extend to their right from FORTUIN. We moved off to VERLORENHOEK and reported to Genl. Chapman B.C.G. 85 th Bde. who had just heard that the Canadians no longer held trenches and that his left (the 7 th Fusiliers) was en l'air. We at once moved off to the Headquarters Royal Fusiliers where unfortunately no guide could be found who knew the way to their left trench. It was then 2am [26 April] and with an hour and a half left a position had to be found and dug since the position of the late Canadian trenches whether the Germans had occupied them or not was very uncertain. 26 April 1915 A hasty reconnaissance having been made, the Bn. began to dig itself in along a position where there were already short lengths of partially dug trenches. Fortunately there was a thick fog at dawn which gave an extra hour for digging and by 4:30am we had got fairly well into the ground. The position although not actually in continuation of the 85 th Bde. proved to be a good one and prevented the enemy getting round the left of the Royal Fusiliers. Heavy shelling began about midday and continued till dark, the trenches being enfiladed from both flanks.

4 The Germans had attempted to infiltrate the gaps either side of the Hampshires on the Gravenstafel Ridge. In the action later known as the Battle of St. Julien. Casualties were heavy: 4 officers - Captain G.A.C. Sandeman, Captain A.T. Chapman and Second Lieutenants O.R. Walford &. F. Fidler - together with 50 other ranks were killed, while 2 officers and 98 other ranks were wounded. Views from the Gravenstafel Ridge: left-hand two looking towards German advance, on right view back to Ypres. Arthur s death was not verified but reported by Pte. Hepworth (1st Bn.) at No. 14 General Hospital, Boulogne, on 7 July Pte. Valler stated sure he was killed at Kemmel [several miles away], but cannot recall the date. The captain said: Goodbye boys, hope you will get through all right. That was last time he was seen, but sure he was dieing then. Pte. Knight (3rd Bn. East Surrey Regt.) said the officer was killed (shot through the head) some time about February, and was buried at night by the regiment. His Commanding Officer wrote to his widow of his death in action near Zonnebeke: He won for himself a place in the hearts of his men and of the officers in the regiment during the few short months he was with us that made his loss one of the worst blows we have received during the war. His solicitude for his men exceeded anything I have ever seen before... All through the winter in the Plug Street trenches he was simply indefatigable, and withal as cheery as a sandboy rain, mud, cold and German snipers were individually and collectively unable to subdue his good spirits. I was not with his regiment when the fighting in the Ypres Salient took place, but I have heard the story of that particular day s fighting in which he was killed. The regiment was ordered to support the 28 th Division, which had become exposed by the retirement of the Canadians. It reached a position an hour before dawn, and dug itself in. A small post in a house on the left flank of the line was rushed by Germans, who were thereby able to enfilade our trenches. It was this we lost Capt. Sandeman, your husband and many men He set an example of devotion to the highest ideal of duty which is possible for anyone to do in giving his life for his country, when only his own unbending sense of duty was there to urge him forward. His death was reported in the Croydon Advertiser and Surrey County Reporter of 8 May 1915: - By the death of Capt. Arthur Chapman killed in action the country loses a patriotic and able officer who was heart and soul in his work, and many residents of Croydon, Sutton and Coulsdon where he was well known have to deplore the loss of a genuine friend. Capt. Chapman was 42 years of age and had served for many years in the Volunteer Force before going to the Front. He was a Lieutenant in the old Volunteers and he helped to form the first (Croydon) battalion of the National Reserve in which he served as Captain. At the time of the Boer War he volunteered for service in South Africa but was taken ill and was unable to go. When the great war broke out he again volunteered and was given a Lieutenant commission in the 3rd East Surreys going to the front attached to the 1st Hampshires after having been stationed for a time at Dover. He was soon promoted Captain. Just after Christmas Capt. Chapman came home on leave for a week and he then returned to the field where he has fallen in his country s cause. Few details are known of Capt. Chapman s death but it appears that he was shot through the head while advancing against the enemy on April 26th. A Lieutenant, who was a comrade and a close friend, and who has been home wounded, brought with him Capt. Chapman s diary which was written up to April 25th, the day before his death, and which reflects in the entries the happy disposition that was so well known to the writer s friends. In his civilian life Capt. Chapman was Chairman of Messrs Chapman & Sons (Croydon) Ltd. builders materials merchants of Tamworth Road, Croydon and Sutton. He made his home at Coulsdon where, as in every circle he was known in, he made many friends by his manly qualities. He leaves a widow with whom sympathy is deep and sincere, but no children. A week later on 15 May 1915 the Croydon Advertiser and Surrey County Reporter carried the following article: DEVOTION TO DUTY - BROTHER OFFICER S TRIBUTE TO THE LATE CAPT. CHAPMAN Writing to Mrs Chapman from the Front, a brother officer of the late Capt. Arthur T Chapman whose death we reported last week, pays tribute to the qualities of his dead comrade. His last words were Let em have it boys for your wives and children s sakes. This last sentence was typical of him. He realised that in this war it is for our generation to save England, our families and our descendants from the unthinkable results of a Prussian world domination. As a man of middle age, none could have blamed him had he taken some job in which he could justly claim to be benefiting the cause, but where he need run no risk. But he was not the type of man to set any example but the best. England now wants fighting men, and as he was not too old to fight, he faced the question like a man and set an example of devotion to the highest ideal of duty which is possible for any man to do in giving his life for his country when only his own unbending sense of duty was there to urge him forward.

5 The Old Mid Whitgiftian (Vol.2 No.6) of June 1915 carried the following article: Another Old Boy to lay down his life for his Country is Captain A. Chapman, who, it is regrettable to announce, was shot through the head during an advance on April 26th. Captain Chapman was 42 years of age and long took an active interest in the old Volunteer Force, and was Captain of the 1 st Battalion National Reserve (Croydon), which he helped to raise. He volunteered for the Boer War, but owing at the last minute to illness, was unable to go. At the beginning of this war he again volunteered and was given a Commission as Lieutenant in the 3 rd East Surreys. He was stationed at Dover, and on going to the Front was attached to the 1 st Hampshires. He was afterwards promoted Captain. He came home on leave just after Christmas, and went back to the field from which he was destined never to return. He leaves a widow, to whom we extend our deepest sympathies, but no family. Commonwealth War Graves Commission records state that Arthur was originally buried, presumably by the Germans, at trench map reference 28.D.15.a near Boethoek. After the war his body was one of many to be disinterred and moved from small or remote sites and moved to larger concentration cemeteries, and Arthur is now commemorated at Oosttaverne Wood Cemetery (grave VII.D.7) to the south of Ypres in Belgium, many miles away from where he fell at St. Julien. Second Lieutenant Walford is buried in a nearby grave, and a few of the other ranks also lie in this cemetery. The other officers and most of the men of the battalion have no known grave and are commemorated on the Menin Gate in nearby Ypres.

6 Arthur is also commemorated at St. Andrew s Church in Coulsdon. In November 1918 the Church Magazine reported: A memorial to Captain Arthur Thomas Chapman was dedicated on Sunday March 19 th The beautiful chancel screen and gates were erected to his memory by his widow and friends before a large congregation. In his address the Vicar (Rev. F.H. Roberts) focused on Capt. Chapman s services to the military, modern Coulsdon and St. Andrew s Church. The memorial, designed and crafted by Messrs. Jones and Wills, Ecclesiastical craftsmen of London and Birmingham, bears the following inscription: AMDG and in loving memory of Arthur T Chapman Captain 3 rd East Surrey Regiment attached to 1 st Hampshire who fell in action in Flanders on April 26 th He was a pioneer of modern Coulsdon. Arthur s will valued gross 5,665/4/10 according to lawyers Drummonds of North End, Croydon. The pension payable to his widow was a 250 gratuity and 100 per annum. Sadly Frederica died in 1929 while an inmate at Camberwell mental hospital, while Smitham Downs Development Company was listed as entering voluntary liquidation in the London Gazette of 15 April Acknowledgements: - Commonwealth War Graves Commission. National Archives: War Diary 1 st Bn. Hampshire Regt. (WO 95/1495); Service Record AT Chapman (WO 339/30102). National Census: 1901 &1911. Mid Whitgiftian & Old Mid Whitgiftian. The Croydon Advertiser and Surrey Reporter. Marquis De Ruvigny s Roll of Honour Croydon and the Great War. John Dixon Magnificent But Not War: The Second Battle of Ypres The Long, Long Trail - Surrey Industrial History Group. London Gazette. St. Andrew s Church Magazine s tribute to the men of Coulsdon listed on the church memorial (compiled by Jo Denvil, Jenny Bowey and Susan Denley). Soldiers Died in the Great War