John Freeman Chapman

Census Address: 11-12 High Street, St Martin's
Place of Birth: Stamford
Date of Birth: 1896
Enlistment Address: --
Regiment: 1st Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment
Service Numbers: Private 201916
Place of Death: Louth, Lincolnshire
Date Died: March 1947
11-12 High Street, St Martins

John was born in Stamford in 1896 and was at school in 1911. He lived with his parents, William and Emmeline, and younger brother Harry, initially in Austin Street. Before 1911 his father, a stationer’s assistant, acquired his own tobacconist/stationer’s business at 11 and 12 High Street, St Martins and the family moved to live ‘over the shop’. His mother helped in the shop and there was at least one domestic servant.

John enlisted in the army a year before his brother, becoming Private 201916 in the 1st Lincolnshire Regiment in 1915. He was posted to France with the British Expeditionary Force on 9 Feb 1916 and was wounded twice, in September 1917 and April 1918. In June 1919 he was still with the BEF in No. 5 POW Camp and was finally demobbed on 5 Sep 1919 at Ripon, Yorkshire.

In the early spring of 1925 he married Mary Alton in Stamford. He died in Louth, Lincolnshire in March 1947, aged 51.