Alfred Hart CHAPPELL

Regimental number3031
Place of birthBallarat, Victoria
SchoolState School, Boorara, Western Australia
ReligionMethodist
OccupationLabourer
Address11 McCourt Street, West Leederville, Western Australia
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation22
Next of kinMother, Mrs E A Chappell, 11 McCourt Street, West Leederville, Western Australia
Previous military serviceNil
Enlistment date30 June 1915
Date of enlistment from Nominal Roll7 July 1915
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name11th Battalion, 10th Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/28/3
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Fremantle, Western Australia, on board HMAT A32 Themistocles on 13 September 1915
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll51st Battalion
FateKilled in Action 3 September 1916
Place of death or woundingMouquet Farm, Pozieres, France
Age at death from cemetery records23
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsAustralian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, France

Villers-Bretonneux is a village about 15 km east of Amiens. The Memorial stands on the high ground ('Hill 104') behind the Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery, Fouilloy, which is about 2 km north of Villers-Bretonneux on the east side of the road to Fouilloy.

The Australian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux is approached through the Military Cemetery, at the end of which is an open grass lawn which leads into a three-sided court. The two pavilions on the left and right are linked by the north and south walls to the back (east) wall, from which rises the focal point of the Memorial, a 105 foot tall tower, of fine ashlar. A staircase leads to an observation platform, 64 feet above the ground, from which further staircases lead to an observation room. This room contains a circular stone tablet with bronze pointers indicating the Somme villages whose names have become synonymous with battles of the Great War; other battle fields in France and Belgium in which Australians fought; and far beyond, Gallipoli and Canberra.

On the three walls, which are faced with Portland stone, are the names of 10,885 Australians who were killed in France and who have no known grave. The 'blocking course' above them bears the names of the Australian Battle Honours.

After the war an appeal in Australia raised £22,700, of which £12,500 came from Victorian school children, with the request that the majority of the funds be used to build a new school in Villers-Bretonneux. The boys' school opened in May 1927, and contains an inscription stating that the school was the gift of Victorian schoolchildren, twelve hundred of whose fathers are buried in the Villers-Bretonneux cemetery, with the names of many more recorded on the Memorial. Villers-Bretonneux is now twinned with Robinvale, Victoria, which has in its main square a memorial to the links between the two towns.

Panel number, Roll of Honour,
  Australian War Memorial
152
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: Thomas and Edith CHAPPELL, 5 Argyle Street, West Leederville, Western Australia. Born at Ballarat, Victoria
Family/military connectionsCousins: 22306 Sergeant Cyril Leslie CHAPPELL, 2nd Australian Light Railway Operating Company, returned to Australia, 30 April 1919; 4772 Pte Harold Clarence CHAPPELL, 51st Bn, returned to Australia, 28 February 1919; 7987 Pte John CHAPPELL, 1st Stationary Hospital, died of wounds, 10 May 1917; 4046 Pte Raymond Ernest CHAPPELL, 32nd Bn, returned to Australia, 12 July 1919; 1074/1094 Pte Stanley James CHAPPELL, 7th Bn, killed in action, 11 September 1915; 1837 Sergeant William Charles CHAPPELL, 2nd Light Railway Operating Company, returned to Australia, 18 July 1919.
Miscellaneous detailsReligious affiliation incorrectly entered on Embarkation Roll as Roman Catholic.
SourcesNAA: B2455, CHAPPELL Alfred Hart