Gerard Philip Chapman

Following the digitisation of the Absent Voters Lists for 1918-1921, we were finally able to track down one of the men on our Roll of Honour board for whom we only had a surname – Gerard Philip Chapman – and we are very grateful to Paul Gardner and his wife for sharing the family photos reproduced here.

‘Phil’ as he was known to the family, was born on the 3^rd March 1896 in Forncett and later baptised in Forncett St Peter’s parish church.  He was the second son of Gerard John Chapman and Ellen (nee Clapham) who farmed at Hill Farm, Forncett End.  The Forncett History Group have created an excellent website giving details of the Chapman family’s history in the village with some great photos. (Thanks to Mike Merrick at the Forncett History Group)

In 1908 when Phil’s father died aged just 42, his widow Ellen sold the farm and moved with her five surviving children to Esperanto Domo, a house recently completed by local builder, Eldon Smith, and situated on the Turnpike road (now the B1113) in Carleton Rode – although it is very close to the parish border with Bunwell and indeed the children attended Bunwell School and St Michael & All Angels’ Church next door.

When war broke out in August 1914, Phil would have been just 18.  From the Regimental Roll and his service number, we know that he signed up with the 1/1 Norfolk Yeomanry in the opening months of the war.

As part of the 1st Mounted Division, Phil served with the Norfolk Yeomanry in coastal defence at Woodbridge, Suffolk.

Less than a year later, the Regiment was sent to reinforce the Allied troops at Gallipoli.

Phil and his company, embarked on the 25^th September 1915, at Liverpool on the RMS Olympic (without their horses) and sailed for Lemnos, a Greek island in the Aegean Sea, from which the Allies were trying to capture the Dardanelles Straits.  The ill-starred campaign had started the previous April with huge losses of Australian, New Zealand and British troops, both because of the difficult terrain and sickness spreading quickly in the sweltering summer heat.  The situation became a stalemate and trench warfare set in – not unlike the situation on the Western Front.

It was at this point in the campaign that the Norfolk Yeomanry, with 25 officers & 504 men – part of the reinforcements – arrived at Mudros harbour on the 1^st October (although bad weather prevented them from landing at ANZAC Cove for ten days).  They joined the 1/8th Hampshire Regiment and the 1/4th Essex Regiment for a week’s instruction in trench warfare in the Hill 60 area.  They were then deployed to relieve the 1/6th Essex and took over the Norfolk Street sector until they were relieved in turn by the 1/4th Norfolk Regiment and returned to rest camp on 26 October. Throughout the following month, the regiment took turns in the trenches to the right of Hill 60.   By the end of November out of the 500 ordinary soldiers, there had been 200 casualties – mostly from sickness.

Read more about the Gallipoli Campaign here.

Whilst Phil was coping with appalling conditions in the Gallipoli trenches, tragedy struck at home for the Chapman family in Carleton Rode.  Phil’s 17-year-old brother, Hugh, died – and was buried in Fundenhall (the Chapman family had been farmers in the village) where his older brother Claud had been interred in 1904 (aged 11) and his father in 1908.  It is not known how long it took for the news to reach Phil.

In early December, the British government decided to abandon the campaign in Gallipoli and the troops were withdrawn.  The last detachments of the Norfolk Yeomanry were evacuated to Mudros on the 20^th December, 1915.

However, this did not mean a return to Britain.

The regiment were sent to Egypt in February 1916, where they were engaged on digging defences for the Suez Canal.

In July, they were moved to Sollum (Sallum) on the Egyptian coast as part of the Western Frontier Force defending Egypt against the Senussi (allies of the Germans and the Ottoman Empire).

The Egypt Expeditionary Force (EEF) was formed in March 1916; the Sinai and Palestine Campaign would see fighting across the whole area from the Mediterranean to the edge of the Jordan Valley.  Phil, as part of the EEF, would experience intense fighting over very difficult terrain including steep, rocky hills and deep gullies, as well as desert plains.

At the time, the campaign was also not very well understood back home in Britain – often it was seen as fighting the Turks and not the Germans – and the Western Front was much closer to home and extensively covered in the newspapers.  Any encounters the public had with the military (be they soldiers home on leave or the wounded) would most often be men returning from France and Flanders.  Through the official War Diaries, we can follow the Norfolk Yeomanry – and Phil’s – journey as the war progressed.

In early 1917, the dismounted brigades were moved from Western Egypt and the Norfolk Yeomanry were redesignated as the 12th (Norfolk Yeomanry) Battalion.

The Chapman family believe that the man seated next to Phil on the end of the row was called ‘Percy’ and that he was a friend from home.

This photo with the name ‘Percy’ written on the back was in Phil’s possession.  However, the identity of Percy remains unknown.

Phil along with his comrades in the 12th Norfolks went into the trenches at Deir el Balah on the 12 April in preparation for the advance into Palestine. They remained in reserve during the Second Battle of Gaza (17–19^th April), and afterwards held the line of Wadi Ghuzzee during May.

The 74th Division, including the 12^th Norfolks, began a period of intense infantry training in August in preparation for the Third Battle of Gaza which opened on the night of the 30^th October with the Yeomanry taking up positions on the far side of Wadi Ghuzzee.  The following morning, the attack started at 8.30am.  All the battalions came under shrapnel fire and progress through the gullies was slow as the men crawled beneath enemy machine-gun fire at close range. However, covered by their own artillery and machine-gun barrage, they cleared the opposing trenches soon after midday – the British had achieved their objective and taken Gaza.

The next phase of the battle, as far as the 12^th Norfolks was concerned, came on the 6^th November, when it attacked towards the railway line. The advance had to be made over two miles of open country to the enemy position, but the attack was remarkable for the speed at which the battalions advanced, taking several enemy gun positions. After the victory, the division was left to clear the battlefield; transporting the injured and sick to the casualty clearing stations across the difficult and waterless country – and burying the dead.

It was during this period that Phil was transferred into the 1^st Garrison Battalion of the Northamptonshire Regiment which was stationed in Gaza after the Third Battle there in November 1917.  Perhaps Phil’s wartime service had taken its toll as the Garrison Battalions were usually manned by men who were not of A1 fitness, or those who had been wounded earlier in the war and medically downgraded to below the standard for front line service, yet still able to perform a good job for the Army.

Phil and the Garrison Battalion spent a further year in Gaza before being transferred to Salonika at the end of October 1918 following the Allies success in the region where the defeat of the Bulgarian Army was the first step leading to the end of the war.  Phil was finally demobilised in March 1919 and returned home, having served continually overseas for three and a half years.

We know that Phil returned to live with his mother and siblings in Carleton Rode and worked as a farm labourer (Electoral Registers and Marriage Register, All Saints’ Church, Tacolneston).

Phil resumed his life in farming back in Norfolk.  For some ex-soldiers returning home to ‘normal life’ was extremely difficult, others adjusted quickly.  For the experiences of some soldiers, read here.

In 1922, Phil married Ellen Lord, a farmer’s daughter from Tacolneston.  After their wedding, Gerard and Ellen lived in New Cottages and near the Turnpike in Tacolneston before taking over at Lime Tree Farm in Forncett when Ellen’s parents retired in the mid-1950s.  More information and photographs of the family can be found on the Forncett History Group’s website.

In 1965, Phil returned to Turkey with former comrades to commemorate the 50^th anniversary of the Gallipoli campaign and the photograph below shows the group in front of the Cape Helles Memorial.