Cpl. G. Chapman

FIRST NAMES: George

UNIT: 4th Yorkshire Regiment

NUMBER: 67

STATUS: Killed in Action

DATE OF DEATH: 2nd May 1915

CEMETERY OR MEMORIAL: The Menin Gate

AGE: 24

Corporal Chapman was born in Northallerton in 1891 and his parents were called George Henry and Alice Chapman. His fatrher was a self-employed cabinet maker and they also had another son, Thomas Henry (born c. 1889) and they lived on the east side of Northallerton High Street, somewhere near the cottage hospital.

He was married on 9th January 1915 to Elsie (nee Wells), with whom he lived at West View in Romanby. George worked as a linen weaver before the war and he was a bandsman in the Territorial Band and a keen football player, playing for the Territorial's team.

He was killed, aged 24, during the 2nd Battle of Ypres when the 4th Yorkshires were heavily attacked with poison gas. His body was not recovered and so he is commemorated on the Memorial to the Missing at the Menin Gate at Ypres.

A Sergeant Wilf Parker, of the 4th Yorkshires, wrote to his friend in Northallerton:

"...The worst day we had was Sunday, when the Germans started to advance. At about 4.30 their artillery commenced to shell us and they didn't half send the shells flying. Then the Germans came out of their trenches and we let them have it. We kept firing away but then they sent their gas shells among us. Oh dear! the smell is fearful. The poor fellows in the thick of it are absolutely helpless. It gives one a horrible feeling and one hardly knows what he is doing. Just at this stage George Chapman got killed..."

George's name also appears on the Romanby Memorial.