Name
Edward Patrick Chapman
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
21/03/1918
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
42887
Machine Gun Corps (Infantry)
36th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
POZIERES MEMORIAL
Panel 90 to 93.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Sawbridgeworth Town Memorial, Great St Mary’s Church Memorial, Sawbridgeworth
Pre War
Edward was born and lived at Rudyard Place, Deptford in January-March 1894.
In the 1911 census he was still living there and he is recorded as being a ‘Van Guard’ on the railway.
He enlisted in Sawbridgeworth.
Wartime Service
Initially he joined the Middlesex Regiment with the Service No G/28158, but then moved to the Machine Gun Corps, Service No 42887.
After initially serving with the Middlesex Regiment, Edward Chapman was transferred to the 36th Battalion Machine Gun Corps (Service No 42887). In 1918, this unit was serving in the Pozieres area in the region of the Somme. On 21 March 1918, the Germans launched their last major offensive of the Great War, operation ‘Michael’. It was on this opening day of the offensive that Edward Chapman was killed defending Pozieres.
He has no known grave. He was aged 24.
Additional Information
There is no obvious connection to Sawbridgeworth, but there were a number of people with this surname living at High Wych. They may have been relatives which would explain his inclusion on the Sawbridgeworth War Memorial.
Acknowledgments
Jonty Wild, Stuart Osborne, Douglas Coe
