Captain Alister Hillyar Darby Chapman
1882-1915
Dress Tunic, c. 1911
Chapman
studied at Eton and was gazetted to the 3rd (Militia) Battalion of the
King's Shropshire Light Infantry on the 19th of September, 1900. The
battalion was originally the Shropshire Militia and had been
redesignated as the 3rd (Militia) Battalion in 1881. He transferred to
the 1st (Royal) Dragoons in December of 1901, joining the regiment in
South Africa during the Second Boer War. Upon their return to England in
1902, the regiment was inspected by its Colonel-in-Chief Emperor
Wilhelm II of Germany. Chapman was advanced to lieutenant in January of
1905. He obtained his captaincy in February of 1910. The regiment was
once again posted to South Africa when the Great War began. They
returned to England and then landed at Belgium with the 6th Cavalry
Brigade of the 3rd Cavalry Division in October of 1914. The regiment
participated in the First Battle of Ypres in October of 1914. Chapman
was mentioned in despatches during the Second Battle of Ypres in April
of 1915. During the Battle of Loos, under heavy shelling, Chapman was
killed in action on the 27th of September, 1915. He was laid to rest in
the Noeux-Les-Mines Communal Cemetery in the Pas de Calais region of
France.
