Lawrence Alfred Chapman

Lawrence Alfred Chapman was the son of Henry Chapman, a chartered accountant living in Westoe, and his wife Dora.

He was one of seven Chapman brothers who attended the High School. Alan Edward had died at the age of only 15, and of the remaining brothers, Robert, Frederick Ernest and Charles Lancelot are known to have served in WW1.

One of their sisters, Marion Dorothy Chapman also served. She was a a nurse with the Voluntary Aid Detachment (founded by the Red Cross) in Egypt, where she died of a lung infection in August, 1918.

Laurence attended the High School from 1894 to 1902, and went into his father's accountancy firm.

Like his brothers, he played rugby, and played for Westoe Rugby Club in the year after leaving school, and again from 1906 to 1908.

However, by 1911 he is recorded as an Assistant Master at Abbotsholme School, near Rocester in Derbyshire, but in later life was shown as an agricultural chemist.

His WWI service was with the Assam Valley Light Horse Regiment, part of the British Indian Army, but not much is known about him after the war.

In 1943, Lawrence was recorded as living at Crichton Royal Institution, a mental assylum in Dumfries. Whilst there, on 3-Feb-1943 he fell to death at Maidenbower Craigs, Dumfries.

Source: South Shields Grammar Technical School for Boys

• Reference: Ancestry Genealogy - SmartCopy: Feb 18 2017, 22:10:47 UTC
• See - Valley Light Horse
• Residence: 1901 - Seacroft, Harton, Harton, Durham, England
• Reference: 1901 England & Wales Census - SmartCopy: Feb 18 2017, 23:11:04 UTC