LIEUTENANT HUMPHREY MARMADUKE CHAPLIN

Humphrey Marmaduke Chaplin was born on the 8th of January, 1892, the son of Marmaduke K Chaplin, of Etwall. He was at school at Rossall, where he won a high reputation as a scholar, and came up to Balliol as Domus Exhibitioner in Classics in October, 1911. He was a very hard worker and, though not naturally a brilliant scholar in the technical sense, he not only obtained a First in Honour Moderations but a Craven Scholarship and the Charles Oldham Prize, besides being honourably mentioned for the Hertford Scholarship.

Retiring by instinct, he was apt to live rather by himself, but was a member of the College Hockey XI, and joined the University O T C. His great general ability would undoubtedly have shown itself in after life, and his fine character, which his friends knew well, would have made its mark.

He was commissioned in August, 1914 to the 3rd Cheshire Regiment, and, attached as lieutenant to the 2nd Battalion on its return from India in January 1915, crossing to France at once. He was slightly wounded on March 13th 1915, but rejoined his battalion in April, when they were moved up to the advanced trenches. On May the 9th, he was reported missing, and his death in the neighbourhood of Ypres was confirmed in July.

The above paragraphs are quoted, with my grateful thanks, from the privately printed War Memorial Book of Balliol College, Oxford.

The Second Battle for Ypres was fought from the 22nd of April 1915 to the 25th May 1915.

It was during the Second Battle for Ypres, in April 1915, that the Germans released poison gas into the Allied lines. This was the first time that poison gas had been used by either side, and the violence of the attack forced an Allied withdrawal and a shortening of the line of defence.

Ninety years have gone by, and the Menin Gate stands as a lasting memorial to the memory of more than 54,000  officers and men whose graves are not known.

Each night, at eight o’clock, the traffic is stopped at the Menin gate, while members of
the local Fire Brigade sound the Last Post in the roadway under the arches of the Memorial.