|
|
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you agree to accept cookies.
If you enjoy this site please consider making a donation.
Site Home
Help & FAQs
Features
Submissions
Information
Advertisements
World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great 1914 1918 first battalion regiment
Sjt. Albert Edward Chatfield
British Army Northumberland Fusiliers
from:Tower Hamlets, England
Albert Edward Chatfield was born in the east end of London on 19 November 1890 to Richard Chatfield and Ellen Landenberger Chatfield. He was the fourth of nine known children, only four surviving to adulthood. The family story is that he left home at 12 or 13 to join the British Navy, giving a false age. By age 14 he had left the British Navy and joined the British Army (falsely) listing his birth year as 1884. Albert was in the British Army, from April 1905 to May 26, 1919. In 1911, Albert was serving in Rawalpindi, India (now Pakistan) with the lst Battalion of the Northumberland Fusiliers. Rawalpindi was the headquarters of the British command in India and housed the largest garrison of British soldiers stationed there.On 13 August 1914, Albert departed England with his regiment, landing at Le Havre several hours later. The regiment disembarked on the 14th and suffered their first casualties on the 23rd of August. A member of the Machine Gun Corps, Albert was wounded on 09 September 1914 in France at the 1st Battle of the Marne. He was strafed by machine gun fire and was sent to 5th Northern General Hospital in Leicester to recover. In October of 1914 it is believed that he continued his convalescence in the Morpeth area. He subsequently returned to action and was eventually discharged in May of 1919.
Pursuant to his Discharge papers he was part of the Northumberland Fusiliers, Machine Gun Corps. His army service included service in India, Turkey, and possibly Africa as well as serving in France in WWI. Albert earned the following medals: 1914 Star, British War Medal, British Victory Medal, Croix de Guerre. Regimental Numbers listed on his medal cards include 1170, 17247, and A-442775. In a letter from Staff Sergeant T. Whelton of the RASC dated May 1st, 1920, Constantinople, after Albert's discharge from the military, Staff Sergeant Whelton stated, "Sgt. Chatfield's work with me has been very satisfactory. He is willing, earnest & sober and has considerable experience of shipping."
Albert immigrated to Canada in July 1921 on the S.S. Vedic. He entered the port of Montreal and from there settled in Toronto. He became a police officer (possibly with the railway police) and eventually met his wife Greeta House in Michigan while investigating a case. They married in 1924, settling in Detroit. They had four children: a son, Nelson Chatfield (Greeta's son from a prior marriage, adopted by Albert), and three daughters, Ellen, Barbara and Dora. Albert played the banjo and mandolin. He was very hard-working, handy and maintained a large garden on family property in Hartland, Michigan. His garden was used to subsidize the family's food rations during WWII. He worked in the auto industry. Greeta died in 1944 and Albert finished raising his family as a single father. Albert died in 1958. At the time of death he was visiting his daughter, Dora Elizabeth Chatfield Leech who resided in Arizona. He is buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery, Detroit, Michigan alongside his beloved wife, Greeta.
Related Content:
Can you help us to add to our records?
The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them
Did your relative live through the Great War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial?
If so please let us know.
Do you know the location of a Great War "Roll of Honour?"We are very keen to track down these often forgotten documents and obtain photographs and transcriptions of the names recorded so that they will be available for all to remember.
Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice.
Celebrate your own Family History
Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Great War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc.
Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.
The free section of The Wartime Memories Project is run by volunteers.
This website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions.
If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running.
Hosted by:
The Wartime Memories Project Website
is archived for preservation by the British Library
Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV
- All Rights Reserved -We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.
