Bertram Isaac CHAPMAN

Geddington Roll of Honour 1914-18

Rank: Private
Service No: 15071
Regiment/Service: Essex Regiment – “A” Company. 1 11th Battalion
Died: 29/09/1915 – Died of wounds – aged 23
Cemetery: Lapugnoy Military Cemetery – Grave: I. D 49A.
Memorial Inscription: ‘O true brave heart, God bless thee.’
War Office Information: Son of Isaac and Sarah Elizabeth Chapman, of Church Gate, Geddington, Kettering, Northants.

Personal Information

Parents: Isaac and Sarah Chapman
Born: 1892 in Newton
Baptised: 29 May 1892, at St Faith’s Church Newton

Bertram was the younger son of Sarah and Isaac and as an older child moved with his parents and older brother Francis from Newton to a property described at the time as a ‘brewhouse’  on the corner of what is now Wood Street and Grafton Road. This became the family shop and only closed permanently in 1989. Bertram’s father and mother provided everything from fresh vegetables to home raised pork for the village. Postmen, forestry workers and estate beaters would call there regularly. Bertram would have been well known in this community.

Bertram however did not follow in his father’s footsteps and instead went to work at the Co-operative Clothing Factory in Kettering.

News from the Western Front was often painfully slow in getting through to families and it was only in October 1915 that the family heard that Bertram had been injured fighting with the 11th Essex Regiment alongside 3 other Geddington men. In fact it was nearly a month after his death that the family were told that he had died of wounds sustained in action on 26th September 1915. His death is recorded as 29th September 1915. He was 23 years old and had served for just over a year.

Census 1901: West Street, Geddington (2 doors from Church Hill)
Isaac Chapman (father); Aged 47; grocer & beer retailer; b. Newton
Sarah Chapman (mother); Aged 45; home & business duties; b. Rushton
Francis L Chapman (brother); Aged 11; b. Newton
Bertram J Chapman; Aged 9; b. Newton
.

Census 1911: Wood Street, Geddington
Isaac Chapman (father); Aged 55; grocer & general dealer – married 22 years
Sarah Elizabeth Chapman (mother); Aged 53; home duties & assisting in business –  2 living children
Francis Levi Chapman (brother); Aged 21; cabinet maker
Bertram Isaac Chapman; Aged 19; tailor’s cutter
.