Private FRANK JAMES CHAPMAN
4, Andover Road, Winchester
Service numbers 4/3238 and 201058. 1/4th Battalion, The Hampshire Regiment
Died of disease in captivity, Mesopotamia, 15 October 1916
Life Summary
Frank James Chapman was born in 1894 in the village of Rustington, near Littlehampton, Sussex. He did not come to Winchester until 1906 when his father took over the running of a public house in St Cross. Frank worked as a legal clerk and volunteered for the 4th Battalion, The Hampshire Regiment shortly after the outbreak of war in 1914. He died in Turkish captivity after being taken prisoner following the siege of Kut-al-Amara in 1916.
Family Background
James Chapman, Frank’s father, was born in Hurstpierpoint, West Sussex, on 26 February 1866. James, one of nine siblings, was the son of Robert Chapman (1833-1902) and his wife Jane (née Brooker) who had married in Petworth, Sussex, in 1860. Robert hailed from Cuckfield, West Sussex, and spent his life working as a gardener and a domestic servant. Jane was born in Farnham, Surrey, in 1835.
Frank’s mother was born Catherine Ruce in Ipswich, Suffolk, in 1866. Catherine, known to family and friends as Kate, was the daughter of John and Mary Ruce. John (1830-1911) had been born in Brightwell, Suffolk, and worked as an ostler - a groom or stableman who took care of horses at an inn. Mary, who was born in Stowmarket, Suffolk, had one other daughter, Ellen.
In 1881, 15-year-old James Chapman was working as assistant gardener and living at the family home in Cuckfield. Kate Ruce, meanwhile, had moved away from Suffolk and had found employment as a nursemaid at the home of draper David Manning and his wife Bertha in Clerkenwell, London.
James and Kate married in 1890 and the following year were living at Mews Brook Cottage, Rustington, along with their five-month-old daughter, Elsie. James was working as a domestic gardener. Little had changed in the family’s circumstances by the 1901 Census, other than the birth of Frank in 1894. They lived in the same house and James was still employed as a gardener.
In 1906 the Chapmans moved to Winchester where James took over the running of the White Horse public house at 3, Front Street, St Cross. (The property remained a pub until 1998 when it was converted into a private residence. The address today is 55, St Cross Road.) Quite why James opted for such a radical ‘career change’ is not known, but he may have been influenced by Kate’s father who worked in pubs and inns. Frank, meanwhile, had left school and was working as a law clerk.
Until 1998 this building at 55, St Cross Road, Winchester,
was the White Horse pub where James Chapman, Frank’s father,
was landlord for several years from 1906.It is now a residential property
but the post-box (inset) is a reminder of its previous use.
4, Andover Road, Winchester
– home to Frank Chapman and his family in 1914.
By 1914 James and Kate had moved again, this time to 4, Andover Road, Winchester. Presumably, James was no longer running the White Horse, but no record can be found of his occupation at the time. Little else is known about Frank Chapman other than a few brief physical details contained in later Regimental documents. These show that he was 6ft tall, wore size 9 shoes and a size 7 cap.
Great War Record
Frank’s first service number, 4/3238, indicates that he enlisted with the 4th Battalion, The Hampshire Regiment in September 1914, just weeks after the Great War began. At the time, the battalion was in the process of being split into two because of the surge of recruits and Frank, after volunteering for service overseas, was assigned to the 1/4th Hampshires. Having said farewell to his family, he sailed with the battalion for India in October, arriving the following month.
The 1/4th Hampshires remained in India until March 1915 when they were ordered to Mesopotamia. Frank arrived at Basra by troopship on 18 March. Almost immediately the battalion began operations in the region against the Ottoman Turks, firstly to defend British oil supplies and later along the Euphrates river, culminating in the capture of the towns of Nasiriyah and Amara.
Frank was part of the garrison at Kut-al-Amara besieged by the Turks from early December 1915. When the garrison surrendered on 29 April 1916, he and some 13,000 British and Indian soldiers were taken prisoner. (For details of the Siege of Kut see pp.378.) Those fit enough were marched off to prisoner-of-war camps, but they had to endure soaring temperatures and brutal treatment on the way and many men fell sick. According to Regimental Sergeant Major William Leach, a fellow 1/4th Hampshire prisoner, Frank was among these casualties and had to be treated in hospital in Tikrit, north of Baghdad. However, he apparently recovered sufficiently to reach the Turkish PoW camp at Airan in Turkey.
According to the Comforts Fund set up by Mrs Esme Bowker for the Hampshire Regiment soldiers captured at Kut, Frank was ‘adopted’ by Mrs Webb of Westfield, Hatch End, north London. She sent him parcels of food and clothing, but he was probably dead before they arrived. According to Mrs Bowker, Frank died at Airan, aged 22. All the sources except the Hampshire Regimental Journal give his date of death as 18 October 1916. The Winchester War Service Register states that he was suffering from enteric (typhoid) fever.
Family after the Geat War
After the war Frank’s parents continued to live at 4, Andover Road until 1927. In 1939 James Chapman, by then 73 and an invalid, was living at Glendale, Kings Worthy, near Winchester, with his daughter Elsie caring for him. James died in Winchester in 1941. No record can be found of Kate Chapman’s death.
Medals and Memorials for Frank James Chapman
Private Frank James Chapman was entitled to the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Basra Memorial, Iraq (PR. 21 and 63) as well as the memorials at St Matthew’s and St Paul’s churches, Winchester.