Walter Chadburn
- Family History
- Military History
- Extra Information
- Photographs
Walter was the son of Ellen Chadburn (b. 1868) who was unmarried. Her son's birth was registered in 1886 as 'Walter Leeson Chadburn'. However, the name 'Leeson' does not appear on his service record or other civilian documents. On the night of the 1891 Census Walter (4) was in the home of his maternal grandparents, Walter Chadburn and his wife Eliza at 25 Duke Street, Mansfield. Also in the household were three of Walter and Eliza's children, Arthur, Alice and William, as well as a boarder, William Scothorn, a framework knitter, and a visitor, Emma Darby. In 1901 Ellen (32), a cotton spinner, and her son Walter who was also in work, were living with her parents who were now at 54 Duke Street, Mansfield. Walter married Elsie Randall (b. 1889) in 1907 and their only child, Winnie Eliza, was born in December 1907. By 1911 Walter, a railway porter, Elsie (21) and Winnie (3) were living at 6 Portland Street, Mansfield. Also in the household were Walter's mother Ellen, a cotton winder, and his widowed grandmother Eliza Chadburn. At the time of Walter's death in July 1917 the family home was at 7 Sherwood Street, Mansfield. Walter's widow was still living at 7 Sherwood Street in 1939 when the England and Wales Register was compiled. She died in 1980. Their daughter Winnie probably married Frank Sheriston in 1939 and were living in Mansfield when the England and Wales Register was compiled later that year. Frank died in 1946 and it is likely that Winnie remarried (Saint) and died in 1975, five years before the death of her mother.
Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Walter attested in 1915 and was transferred to the Army Reserve on 11 December 1915. He was mobilized on 7 July 1917 and drafted for the British Expeditionary Force (France) on 12 November the same year. He joined Hood Battalion on 24 November 1917. He suffered a gun shot wound to the lower jaw on 26 December 1917 but was able to rejoin the Battalion on 4 February 1918. He was reported missing in action on 24 March 1918, but later found to have been captured and made a prisoner of war. Walter died of pneumonia at the War Hospital Monastery, Section 24, at Denain, France, on 18 July. He is buried in Denain Communal Cemetery (see 'extra information'). CWGC - history of Denain Cemetery (extract): 'Denain was a German hospital centre during the greater part of the War; and from the 1st November, 1918, to the 12th March, 1919, the 33rd Casualty Clearing Station was posted in the town. The Communal Cemetery, was used by the Germans to bury their soldiers and (in 1917 and 1918) 153 British prisoners. A British plot was made at the South-East end, after the capture of the town; and after the Armistice the graves of the prisoners and other British graves were regrouped beside it.' (www.cwgc.org)
Mansfield Reporter, 'In Memoriam', 18 July 1919: ‘Chadburn. In loving memory of Walter Chadburn, AB, 63rd Division (RN) who died a Prisoner of War in Germany, on the 18th July, 1918. Gone from us, but not forgotten, Never will his memory fade; Sweet thoughts will ever linger Round the spot where he is laid. From his sorrowing Wife and Daughter’ (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) Mansfield Reporter, ‘In Memoriam’, 21 July 1922: ‘Chadburn. In loving memory of my dear husband, Able-Seaman Walter Chadburn, of the Royal Naval Division, who died a prisoner of war in Germany, July 18th, 1918. ‘Still to memory ever dear.’ Ever remembered from his loving Wife and Daughter.’ (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) 'In Memoriam' notices were also published in the Mansfield Reporter on, or near, the anniversary of Walter's death in 1920 and 1921.
