People on board

CHATER, Henry Thomas

Henry Thomas Chater was born in Old Hill, Dudley, Staffordshire in 1884 to John Chater and Eliza Houghton. He was the second of their fourteen children, thirteen of whom were alive in 1911. John Chater was a ‘Brickyard Labourer’ and in the 1901 census the eldest son was working as a ‘Clay fields Labourer’. Henry and his two younger brothers were ‘Pipe Works Earth Labourers’. The family was then living in Oak Street in Dudley.

In 1908 Henry married Mary Willetts and in 1911 they were living in Lawrence Lane in Old Hill. A son, Samuel Henry, was born in March 1911 and a second son, Harry, was born in 1916.

Henry Chater enlisted in 1916 at Lichfield in The King’s (Liverpool) Regiment. He was with the 1/6th Battalion which was fighting in France and Flanders. He was wounded in March 1918 and taken to No 12 Casualty Clearing Station at Mendinghem, in western Flanders, “Gassed, Shell, Severe Wound”. He was transferred to a Hospital Ship on the 28th of March. According to his medical records his religion was Methodist.

Recovered but not fit for front line duty, Henry Chater was transferred to the 3rd Reserve Battalion of the Liverpool Regiment. This Battalion had moved to Ireland in 1917 and was stationed at Cork and Youghal. Presumably returning home on leave, he travelled on RMS Leinster on the 10th of October 1918. He did not survive the sinking nor was his body recovered. His name is recorded on the Hollybrook Memorial in Southampton.