Regiment: 11th Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment (1st South Downs)
Service No: 4619 then G/15802
Date & place of birth: 1888/89 in Lickfold
Date & place of death: 7 December 1917 (aged 28) at Poperinghe, Belgium
Two brothers from this branch of the Chandler family, well known in this area, both served in the Royal Sussex Regiment in World War 1 and lost their lives on the Western Front.
Family background
Frederick Chandler was born in Lickfold in 1888-89 and was baptised on 10 February 1889 in St Peter’s church, Lodsworth. He was the son of John Chandler, an agricultural labourer from Lickfold, and his wife Rosa Ellen née Etherington, originally from Lurgashall. They had married in 1887.
In 1910 Frederick married Agnes Ann Sophia Kingshott of Woolhurst, Lodsworth, who had been born in Easebourne on 14 June 1888. They had a son Frederick Stanley, born on 22 October 1910, and a daughter Gladys Mary, born in 1912.
Initially they resided in Gentilhurst, Lickfold, but by 1911 Frederick was a farm labourer and they were living with Agnes’s mother and stepfather in Winter’s End Cottages, Lodsworth Common.
Military service
Frederick enlisted at Gentilshurst and served as Private 4619 then G/15802 in the 11th Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment (1st South Downs), part of the Army’s 39th Division.
He was awarded the Military Medal. This is recorded in the battalion’s war diary on 28 October 1917. The West Sussex County Times of 25 May 1918 reports:
Presentations of Military Medals:
No. 15802 Pte. F. Chandler (Lodsworth) 11th Royal Sussex Regiment. At Menin Road November 1917, he brought in six wounded under heavy machine gun fire; subsequently killed.
His action at Menin Road is likely, however, to have been between 24 and 27 September rather than in November.
Death and commemoration
Frederick died of his wounds on 7 December 1917 aged 28. He was buried in grave IX.D.10 in the Nine Elms British Cemetery, Poperinghe, Belgium. He is commemorated on the Lodsworth war memorial.
Subsequent family history
Frederick’s younger brother, Ernest, also serving with the Royal Sussex Regiment, had been killed in 1915.
His mother, Rosa Ellen Chandler, died on 2 January 1932 aged 67. His father, John Chandler, died on 30 March 1938 aged 75. They were both buried in St Peter’s churchyard, Lodsworth.
His wife Agnes died in 1981 aged 93 and his son Frederick Stanley in 1996 aged 86.