Jack Chapman
24th Battalion, C.E.F.
1898-1918
Contributor and author: Earl Chapman
Source: All of the information regarding Jack's movements come from the Battalion's War Diary and from the official histories of the 24th and 42nd Battalions published some years after the war.
Jack, the eldest of six children, was born in North West Leicester,
England on June 4th, 1897 to Harry
Chapman and Florence Cox. This area of Leicester was previously part of
the village of Belgrave, since
incorporated into the City of Leicester. By 1910, the family had fallen
on hard times and were receiving
relief from the Leicester St. Margarets Poor Law Union. The Poor Law
Union had devised a way to assist
certain families in need by helping them emigrate to countries such as
Canada. Harry and Florence were
selected under this program and the family boarded the steamer S.S.
Dominion in Liverpool, leaving the
shores of England for the last time on May 20th, 1911. Jack was
fourteen years of age and would have
been a big help to the family during these trying times. The old
steamer had seen better days and it took ten
days to finally make its way to Quebec City. The family then boarded a
CPR train to Montreal, their final
destination. Harry found the family a temporary home in a old shed off
Soulanges Street in Point St.
Charles, a working class community south of Montreal's downtown core.
Little is known about Jack until he was conscripted under the Military
Service Act (MSA) of 1917 into the
Canadian Expeditionary Force for service in France and Belgium during
World War I. At this time, Jack
was employed as a clerk. In spite of his "overlapping small toes and
flat feet," Jack was classed "Fit, A-2"
during a preliminary medical exam held on October 6th, 1917. Jack was
20 years old, 5'-8" tall, 132
pounds, with fair hair and complexion, blue eyes, and "good physical
development."
Following his second medical on January 5th, 1918, he was posted to "G"
Company, 1st Depot Battalion, 1st
Quebec Regiment [The 1st Quebec Regiment provided reinforcements for the
20th and 23rd Reserve
Battalions in England, which in turn provided drafts for the 13th
Battalion (Royal Highlanders of Canada),
14th Battalion (Royal Montreal Regiment), 24th Battalion (Victoria
Rifles of Canada), 42nd Battalion (Royal
Highlanders of Canada), 87th Battalion (Canadian Grenadier Guards), and
the 5th Canadian Mounted Rifles
(C.M.R.) Battalion, all in France.] in Montreal and assigned the
regimental number 3080879, the
high service number characteristic of the MSA men. Of the 400,000 men
registered as fit for
service under the MSA, only 100,000 were actually called to service. Of
this number, only
47,000 went overseas but only 24,000 went to France before the Armistice
in November 1918.
The first conscripts arrived in France in mid-August 1918 and were
quickly sent in to reinforce
the front line battalions after their severe losses at Amiens and Arras.
Jack signed the required Last Will and Testament on January 15th, 1918
leaving his mother the
sole beneficiary of all his worldly possessions. After a little local
training in Montreal, Jack
boarded the steamer SS Scandinavian on March 24th, 1918, arriving in the
United Kingdom on
April 3rd. He was posted to the 23rd Reserve Battalion in Bramshott on
April 6th. After more
intensive training in England, and after some minor shuffling between
reserve units, he was finally
posted to the 42nd Battalion, Royal Highlanders of Canada, then
stationed near Arras, France, on
August 30th, 1918. Little did Jack know that he would be dead in less
than a month! The
Battalion had just seen action on the 28th, having made attacks on
Jigsaw Wood and Boiry
Trench. During the night of the 28th, the Battalion was relieved and
proceeded to billets (rest
area) in Arras. Jack (and presumably other reinforcements) must have
been a welcome sight to
the weary soldiers of the 42nd. On September 1st, the Battalion moved
from Arras by route march
to billets at Hermaville, a few miles north west of Arras. On September
4th, the Battalion relieved
the 58th Canadian Battalion in the Vis-en-Artois area where they served
as Brigade support.
On September 7th, Jack was transferred to another well-known Montreal
unit, the 24th Battalion,
Victoria Rifles of Canada starting the chain of events which would
shortly take his life. The 24th
Battalion was then occupying old trenches just outside the village of
Croisilles, south of the main
Arras-Cambrai road. The 24th had been almost totally destroyed during
the Second Battle of
Arras where it had suffered 666 casualties during the month of August.
The 24th were in the
Croisilles area from September 7th to the 12th undergoing field training
as well as receiving
reinforcement drafts. On September 14th, with Jack in tow, the 24th
moved a short distance west
to Cagnicourt where it relieved the 21st Canadian Battalion and received
further reinforcements.
On the 15th, the Battalion moved back to Croisilles, then by train to
Acq where they detrained and
marched to Agnez-les-Duisans. The 24th remained here for two days,
enjoying beautiful weather,
while getting the chance to clean up and to be inspected by their
Commanding Officer, Lieut.-
Col. C.F. Ritchie! On the 17th, the Battalion received training in the
morning and lectures in the
afternoon. The 18th was another beautiful day, and in typical Army
fashion, the 24th retraced its
route from Agnez-les-Duisans to Acq and then by train to Croisilles,
detraining at 5:00 p.m.
From here it marched forward taking over trenches and lines occupied by
the 29th Canadian
Battalion. A draft of 93 men joined the Battalion on the move. At this
time, the trench strength
of the 24th was 21 Officers and 700 men.
The morning of the 19th saw the Battalion getting ready to move forward,
finally marching off at
5:30 p.m. for the line under orders to relieve one Company of the 7th
(British) Battalion, Highland
Light Infantry and two Companies of the Scottish Rifles in close support
positions near
Inchy-en-Artois, a small village south of the main Arras-Cambrai road
and on the important Canal
du Nord, with relief completed at 10:55 p.m.
However, the move to the Inchy sector was limited to 21 Officers and 650
men, and as a result 50
men had to be assigned to other duties, outside of the forward line. It
is likely that the less
experienced men were kept back, and Jack was likely with this group.
The night was very quiet
with intermittent showers. September 20th brought fine, warm weather
but it also brought heavy
German gas shelling for most of the day and into the night. Two work
parties totalling 100 men
were organized to support the Light and Medium Trench Mortar Batteries.
This day also saw
exceptional activity in the air between English and German aircraft.
German artillery was quite
busy during the night, shelling the front and support lines. A draft of
32 men joined the Battalion
at the "Rear Details" which were located in trenches outside
Bullecourt. While in the Inchy
sector (which lasted until September 25th), the Germans had good
observation of the 5th Brigade
lines from the high ground east of the Canal du Nord, principally from
Bourlon Wood, and orders
were issued by the Brigade to restrict unnecessary movement during
daytime. Jack's life was now
measured in days. Good weather continued into Saturday, September 21st,
with another aerial
show to entertain the soldiers. Once again, two large working parties
were organized to support
the Trench Mortar Batteries. Heavy shelling on this day resulted in the
death of Private Jean
Rainville, the first of four 24th Battalion men to die while serving in
the Inchy sector. Heavy
shelling continued during the night and into the early morning hours of
Sunday, September 22nd.
Jack's life was now measured in minutes.
Jack must have been assigned to a carrying party because he was not with
the main body of the
24th on the evening of September 21st. Carrying parties would have been
anywhere between Inchy
and Arras, bringing up ammunition, supplies, etc. As a result, Jack
found himself in a support
trench in the vicinity of Tilloy-lez-Mofflaines, just east of Arras in
the early morning hours of
September 22nd. Although Tilloy was 6 miles to the rear of Inchy, it
was well within the range
of German heavy artillery in their gun positions a few thousand yards
east of the Canal du Nord.
Just after the regulatory pre-daybreak stand to and while cleaning his
rifle, an enemy shell
exploded nearby, killing him instantly. He was buried in a temporary
grave close to the spot
where he was killed. Unfortunately, the survivors were not able to
properly record the location of
Jack's temporary grave using trench map coordinates. As a result, his
grave could not be located
by the Battalion's Burial Officer at a later date, in any event, the
Battalion was on the move a few
days later. This day was also unlucky for Private Ruben Walter Kramer,
who lost his life in a
support trench in the Inchy sector. The Battalion's War Diary entry for
September 22nd, 1918
simply reads: "Nothing unusual to report other than heavy enemy shelling
during the night.
Casualties two killed and 2 wounded (Other Ranks)."
Private Joseph Phillips was the last killed during the Battalion's
tour in Inchy, losing his
life on September 25th while on picquet duty in the support line at
Pronville (a short distance
west of Inchy). Of the four killed in the Inchy sector, only Jack's
remains were never identified.
The remains of Privates Rainville and Kramer were buried in the nearby
Queant Communal
Cemetery (British Extension) straight from the battlefield, while the
remains of Private Phillips
were buried in a temporary grave at map references 51b.V.29.b.4.8. and
later concentrated in the
Queant Road Cemetery during the battlefield clearances after the war.
It is possible that Jack's
remains were found (but never identified) during the battlefield
clearances (1919-1921) and
concentrated in a nearby British cemetery. A number of cemetery's close
to Tilloy have
unidentified Canadian soldiers, including: Tilloy Cemetery (on the SE
side of Tilloy-lez-
Mofflaines); Feuchy Chapel Cemetery (3 km east of Monchy-le-Preux);
London Cemetery (near
Neuville-Vitasse); and Wancourt Cemetery (west of Wancourt).
Because he has no known grave, Jack's name, along with those of over
11,000 Canadian soldiers
who fell in France and who lie in unknown graves, are inscribed on the
Vimy Memorial erected
at Vimy Ridge, France. These words are inscribed on the base of
Memorial: "To the valour of
their countrymen in the Great War and in memory of their sixty thousand
dead this monument is
raised by the people of Canada."
Jack's two service medals (The Victory Medal and the British War Medal)
as well as the Memorial Cross
(a special medal given to Mother's of lost sons) are all in the
author's possession, as is a 5-inch circular Memorial Plaque cast in
Bronze. The plaque was a memento given to the next-of-kin of all
soldiers from the British Commonwealth whose deaths were attributable to
the Great War and bears the inscription: "He died for Freedom and
Honour." The plaque includes Jack's full name, without any indication
of rank or honours, "to show equality of sacrifice." A scroll
accompanied the plaque and bore the following message:
"He whom this scroll commemorates was numbered among those
who, at the call of King
and Country, left all that was dear to them, endured hardness,
faced danger, and finally
passed out of the sight of men by the path of duty and
self-sacrifice, giving up their own
lives that others might live in freedom. Let those who come after
see to it that his name is
not forgotten."
The plaque and scroll were sent to Jack's parents in 1921. These items,
along with the medals
and cross, must have caused the family considerable heartbreak, all
coming many years after
Jack's unfortunate death. Jack's name is also inscribed in the First World War Book of Remembrance which is displayed for public viewing in the Chapel of the
Parliament of Canada in Ottawa. Jack's page is displayed every year on
August 20th. The book's title page reads:
"Here are recorded the names of the Canadians who, loyal to
the Crown and faithful to
the traditions of their fathers served in the Canadian and other
forces of the British
Empire, and gave up their lives in the Great War 1914-1918."
Note from Brian
Jack can be found on Veteran's Affairs Virtual Cemetery
Found on the CEF online database
Front of Attestation Form
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The Poppy is a Trademark of Dominion Command, Royal Canadian Legion, and is
used on The Canadian Military Heritage Project with permission
