Name
Alfred Chisman
1868
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Leverstock Green Village Memorial, Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial
Pre War
Alfred George Chisman was born in Highgate, London in 1868, the son of Thomas and Susanna Chisman, and one of 8 children, one of whom died in infancy. He was baptised on 12 February 1869 at St Michael, Highgate.
In 1871 the family were living at 3 Hampstead Lane, Highgate, London but had moved to Southwood Lane, 1 Wells Hill, Hornsey in 1881 where his father was working as a Coachman for John Johnston, a wealthy Assayer and Goldsmith.
Alfred left school in 1882 and, like his father went into domestic service, working as a Groom. Like many young men he enlisted with the Militia, which was a way of supplementing their wages, and served with the 3rd (City of London) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers.
He enlisted with the Regular Army on 1 February 1886 and joined the Royal Fusiliers (reg. no. RF/2367). He was posted to Egypt in October 1886 and returned to England in February 1888, being promoted to Corporal.
On the 1891 Census he was listed as residing in the Barracks in Hounslow as a Corporal. He was promoted to Sergeant in February 1893 and, at the end of his period of service, was transferred to the Army Reserve.
After leaving the army he was employed as a footman and married Elizabeth Charlotte Rowe (a cook from Shropshire) at St Augustine, Paddington on 6 January 1894 by licence. They had a daughter Hilda May born later the same year and a son Alfred two years later.
He joined the Hertfordshire police force and in 1900 was promoted to sergeant, serving with the mounted section at Hoddesdon and Ware, and later at Hemel Hempstead. On the 1901 Census they were living at Duke Street, Hoddesdon. Sadly his wife died in later summer 1907 but he remarried the following year to Harriet Emma Edmonds on 21 December 1908 at St Paul's Church, Hemel Hempstead. Harriet was matron of the hospital in Highfield Lane, Hemel Hempstead and when Alfred left the Police in 1910 he became a porter there. On the 1911 Census Alfred and Harriet were listed as living at The Joint Hospital, Bennetts End, Hemel Hempstead. His daughter Hilda May was living with them.
Wartime Service
At the outbreak he re-enlisted in on 24 August 1914 with his old regiment, 10th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, as Sergeant and became an instructor at Colchester.
He volunteered to go the front and was posted to France in July 1915. He saw action at the Battle of Ancre and after spending a winter in the front line, his health deteriorated and he suffered from rheumatic fever in March 1916. He received a gunshot wound to his right leg on 1 May 1916, was invalided home and discharged from the army as medically unfit on 10 August 1916 with a pension of 20 shillings a week, receiving silver war badge no. 54429.
He became Master of the new isolation hospital in Bennetts End following discharge, where his wife Harriett was Matron, and later became a School Attendance Officer. Unfortunately in March 1919 he caught 'Spanish Flu' and developed pneumonia complicated by endocan sepsis from which he died on 26 March 1919, aged 50 and is buried in Heath Lane Cemetery, Hemel Hempstead. An obituary published in the Hemel Hempstead Gazette included details of his funeral on 31 March 1919 and described and commended his work at the Isolation Hospital.
Additional Information
Not listed on the CWGC records as he had been discharged at the time of his death. His widow received a war gratuity of £12. N.B. On the Hemel Hempstead Memorial his initials are erroneously shown as C H, but correctly given as A on the Leverstock Green Memorial. His son George Alfred Chisman enlisted in to the Army Service Corps, age 19 in 1915 in Romsey, despite having lost the sight of one eye as a child. He survived the war but had an injury to his wrist and received a weekly disability pension of 5s 6d. He gave his address on discharge as 85 Apsley End, Hemel Hempstead.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.dacorumheritage.org.uk, www.hemelatwar.org., google.com/site/leverstockgreenwarmemorial, www.hemelheroes.com.
