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World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great 1914 1918 first battalion regiment
Pte. William "Wallie" Chappell
Riffleman 16th Btn. King's Royal Rifle Corps
from:Ossett, Wakefield Yorkshire
(d.31st Jan 1916)
I came across a rather sweet postcard from this boy to his mother as he prepared to leave for war, and, so I decided to find out more about this soldier and from where he had come. William Chappell was born in 1896 in Batley, Yorkshire, son of Hannah Maria and Arthur Chappell. The Chappells lived in Ossett, near Wakefield with William, known as Wallie, his brother Joe (b.1894), sister Mary (b.1905) and his cousin Bertram Allsopp (b.1892, adopted son of the Chappells. By 1911, the Chappell household also included Arthur's mother Mary Chappell, 75.
Ossett was principally a cloth making town, but also employed many in the local coal mines around Wakefield. Arthur was a Stationary Engineer and had married Hannah Maria c.1891. Wallie's brother, Joe, was an apprentice blacksmith, and Bertram was a Mill Worker/Rag Maker, whilst Wallie and his sister Mary were at school in 1911.
Wallie joined the Church Lads' Brigade sometime around 1909 at the age of 13, and the boys were disciplined in rifle drills and various military style exercises. In 1911 the small movement became recognised by the War Office as part of the Territorial Cadet Force and when the call to arms came in the summer of 1914 they formed the 16th (Service) Battalion (Church Lads' Brigade) of the King’s Royal Rifle Corps under Field Marshal Lord Grenfell at Denham in Buckinghamshire.
In early September 1914 the 18-year-old Wallie Chappell left his family and travelled first to London's King Cross, and then across to Denham. Wallie writes to his mother as soon as he arrives in Denham, on a postcard he bought at the Swan Hotel on the Village Road:
"Dear Mother, Arrived London 2pm. Came straight here. Can't say where or what we shall do. This place Denham is near Webridge. Don't worry shall be all right. Dont know my address yet. Love from Wallie." He adds one more line: "Am in this hotel on the photo while writing".
Wallie spent the next six months in Denham undertaking training and guard duties at local bridges and reservoirs, and two further months in Raleigh, Essex. In June 1915 the Lads moved to Clipstone Camp in Mansfield and attach to the 100th Brigade in 33rd Division and that summer on to Perham Down, a village near Salisbury Plain, and Andover. In November the Division received a warning order to prepare to sail for France, and the Brigade moved by train to Southampton with a total contingent of 30 officers and 994 other ranks, 64 horses and mules, 19 vehicles and 9 bicycles. Wallie and the 16th Battalion (Church Lads' Brigade) of the King’s Royal Rifle Corps ended their journey into war with a night Channel crossing and landed on 17th November in the Haute-Normandie region of France at Le Havre.
The following is an account from records of the 16th Battalion:
From the Le Havre, the battalion moves first by train via Abbeville to Thienne on 19th November and then after a few days in Boesegham it marches on to Annezin by the 30th November. Various course and training continue while different parts of the battalion are giving some trench familiarisation in rotation. Others are attached to the 180th Tunnelling Company RE as working parties for mining activities. They move to St.Hilaire on the 12th December, where they remain until the 28th December. Christmas day 1915, passes without any special note and 28th/29th December they move to billets in Bethune. The Battalion gets the bath house on New Year's day, but there is no clean kit available.
On 2nd January 1916, the first Sunday of the New Year, the battalion moves into the firing line for eight days in trenches near Bethune. The battalion's position comes under an intense bombardment that lasts for hours. As the firing and shelling dies down, the damage has to be repaired. This work, together with digging out the buried men, goes for the next few days while the enemy continue to snipe, shell and machine gun. The battalion is relieved on the 10th January. Their losses for that first Sunday alone were 9 killed and 27 wounded.
It was at, or shortly after, this battle in Bethune that William 'Wallie' Chappell was wounded and died of his injuries. He was buried on 31st of January 1916 in Bethune Town Cemetery, Pas de Calais, and a headstone marks his burial. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission record his passing: "Chappell, W. Age 20. Son of Arthur and Hannah Maria Chappell of 6 Groudle Place, Broadowler Lane, Ossett Wakefield."
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