Chapman, Percy Wellesley, MC (Captain, b.c1887 - d.1917)

Places	Africa: Egypt Europe: France Middle East: Ottoman Empire, Turkey, Dardanelles, Gallipoli
Accession Number	1DRL/0198
Collection type	Private Record
Record type	Collection
Measurement	2 wallets: 2 cm.
Object type	Papers
Place made	Australia: New South Wales, Sydney
Date made	1927; 1915-1917
Access	Open
Related File This file can be copied or viewed via the Memorial’s Reading Room.	AWM93 12/11/3
Conflict	First World War, 1914-1918
Copyright	Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain This item is in the Public Domain
Copying Provisions	Copyright expired. Copying permitted subject to physical condition. Permission for reproduction not required.

Description

Collection relating to service of Captain Percy Wellesley Chapman MC, 55 Battalion, Gallipoli, Egypt and France, 1916-1917. Collection includes typescript and photostat copies of diaries and letters written home to his mother in Sydney, NSW.

History / Summary

Copies provided to the Memorial 1927 by the Chapman Family. An annotation on the typescript diary records that the diary was presented by Miss Perry-Ayncough from the collection of the late Lady (Ethel) Turing. Letters in the collection indicate that Chapman gave his diary to Lady Ethel Turing for safekeeping. A letter on file AWM93 0012/0011/0003 indicates that the family made several copies after it was received by Miss Nina Mann. Miss Mann is mentioned in Chapman's letters, in particular, the letter of 21 May 1916, where Nina is mentioned "as the only other person I write to". By the time Chapman is in France, 8 September 1916, he writes "I suppose by this time that Nina is married and perhaps enjoying her trip to Melbourne. I am glad she is married." Chapman's mother advised the Memorial of Miss Mann's Goulburn address in 1927, which indicates that she was still unmarried at that time.

Biographical note: Town with which he was chiefly associated, Goulburn, NSW. Born Glen Innes, NSW, educated at Wolaroi House, Orange, NSW, The Armidale School and was a student at the Hawkesbury Agricultural School. Killed aged 30 years 12 March 1917, "near Bapaume". Served with the 55th Battalion, AIF, received Military Cross at Fleurbaix (Fromelles).