Name
Albert E (poss Edward Albert) Chapman
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
04/10/1917
22
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
T/205382
The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment)
3/4th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
TYNE COT MEMORIAL
Panel 14 to 17 and 162 to 162A.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
St Mary’s Church Memorial, Rushden
Pre War
Born in 1895 in Rushden son of George and Linda Chapman of Church End, Rushden and baptised in Rushden on 6 Oct 1895.
Living as adopted son of Noah Gray next door in 1901 and 1911 as a boarder and farm labourer.
1901: Living at Church End, Rushden, Albert, aged 5 was the 4th son of George (aged 37) an agricultural labourer and Linda (34) but in the census he is shown as the ‘adopted son’ of Noah and Emma Gray who lived next door. Proof came in the service records of his brother (see later). In 1901 the siblings were Alice M. 12, George, 11, Charles F.10 Arthur, 8, Dorothy 4, Frank 2 and Bernard, 1. With 8 children it is not surprising that one was farmed out to the neighbours!
1911: In this census, Albert was still living with Noah and Emma Gray (aged 50 and 51) but they declared they had no children and Albert (15) was recorded as a boarder. He was a farm labourer too.
Wartime Service
Albert enlisted in Hitchin and joined the 3/4th Battalion Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment) in the 62nd. Brigade, 21st. Division. His number was T/205382. His medal rolls entitlement shows that he was awarded the war and victory medals so he joined up after the beginning of 1916. None of his service records survived the WW1. bombings in which 60% of records were lost.
On an overcast day, October 4th. 1917 when the temperature was 60 degrees the 21st Div. went into action with the 62nd and 64th Brigades at 6am. Albert’s battalion attacked across Polygonbeek stream and the adjacent marsh. Juniper Trench was taken and a blockhouse. The attack continued to Judge Trench and consolidation was begun but many casualties were sustained. The attack was taken up by the 1st. Lancashire Regiment who again suffered heavy shelling from Judge Copse to the east but they managed to consolidate their position. Albert Chapman aged just 22 was killed in action on that day and his body was not found or found but unidentified.
Albert is commemorated on the vast Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing near Ypres, panels 14-17, 162-162a.
It was said that; “The offensive spirit of the3/4 Queen’s in this their first fight was beyond all praise and their recent hard training enabled them instinctively to work around these Mebus and reduce them with skill and rapidity” (Polygon Wood by Nigel Cave in the Battleground Europe Series page 104.)
Acknowledgments
Jonty Wild, Jean Handley
