LIEUTENANT MONTAGUE GERALD HERBERT CHAPMAN
RIFLE BRIGADE
14TH AUGUST 1917 AGE 21
BURIED: CEMENT HOUSE CEMETERY, LANGEMARK, BELGIUM
The report of Lieutenant Chapman's death in the Newcastle Journal on 1 September 1917 concludes with the words of his commanding officer: "He was doing a very brave deed at the time of his death, which was instantaneous. He was a very brave officer, and I cannot tell you [how] I feel his loss".
The 'brave deed' was the attempt to cross the Steenbeek in order to get a foothold on the east bank prior to the launch of the Battle of Langemarck. There had been several attempts to achieve this since the 8 August but they had all failed. This attempt succeeded in taking enough of the ground for the main attack to go ahead on the 16th, even though the German blockhouse, Au Bon Gite, lost to the Germans on the 31 July, held out until the 16th. The attack cost the 10th Battalion the Rifle Brigade, in which Chapman was serving, 215 casualties.
Chapman's father, Frederick Herbert Chapman, a wine merchant and brewer in Rye, Sussex, chose his inscription. It comes from the hymn 'O Paradise, O Paradise' where it is repeated at the end of every verse:
Where loyal hearts and true
Stand ever in the light
All rapture through and through
In God's most holy sight.