Edward Swan Chilvers

A Private with H Battalion, Edward died on 25th of November 1917 at the age of 21. 

Edward was born at Kirkley in 1896, a son of Elizabeth Caroline Chilvers. In 1901 he lived with his mother, and grandmother Sarah Chilvers, at 462 London Road. By 1911 he was living with his mother, brother and sister, at 7 Lincoln’s Buildings, and Edward was an apprentice shipwright. Later his family lived at 6 Lincoln’s Buildings. In 1915 Edward’s mother married Thomas Swan and they lived at 10 Strand Street.  

Edward volunteered and enlisted in the 1/4th Battalion Suffolk Regiment, at Lowestoft, in 1914. He was given service number 1893 which indicates that he enlisted in the summer of 1914, and before the First World War began. He was mobilized when the war began, and he arrived in France with his battalion on 8 November 1914. At some point Edward was transferred from the Suffolk Regiment: he may have joined the Machine Gun Corps, part of which then became the Tank Corps, or he made have been transferred directly to the Tank Corps. He served with H Battalion.

In early November 1917 H Battalion spent several days training practice attacks with elements of the 6th Division. On 10 November the battalion moved to Montenescourt and on 12 November worked with fascines attached to their tanks. On 14 November the battalion’s 40 tanks entrained and they arrived at Fins on 15 November. During 18 November the battalion’s tanks were overhauled in readiness for the forthcoming attack and on 19 November they moved into position in readiness for the attack at Cambrai.   

The battalion’s front line tanks were to support the infantry advance on the Hindenburg Line, and support tanks were then to move up and be part of the advance beyond the initial objectives. During the attack on 20 November four of the tanks broke down, or were ditched, and four were knocked out. In the next few days the battalion lost another tanks ditched and five others knocked out. 

There is no record of when, where, or how, Edward was wounded, but it is most likely that he was wounded during the first days of the offensive at Cambrai. Edward is buried at the Rocquigny-Equancourt Road British Cemetery and many of the burials at this cemetery are men who died at 21 or 48 Casualty Clearing Station, and it is possible that Edward died at one, or other, of these medical facilities.  

Note: some sources give Edward's rank as Gunner. His rank in the Tank Corps would have been Private, but his role in his tank would have been as a gunner.