Company Sergeant Major Edward Thomas Chapman VC, BEM (13 January 1920 – 3 February 2002) was a Welsh recipient of the

Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previously ...

, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...

forces.

Early life

Ted Chapman was born in

Pontlottyn Pontlottyn ( cy, Pontlotyn) is a village located in the county borough of Caerphilly, within the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan, Wales. It is sited just to the south of Rhymney, and to the west of the Rhymney River. History Pontlottyn, ...

, near

Rhymney Rhymney (; cy, Rhymni ) is a town and a community in the county borough of Caerphilly, South Wales. It is within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire. With the villages of Pontlottyn, Fochriw, Abertysswg, Deri and New Tredegar, Rhymney is ...

, the son of a coal miner. He left school at age 14 and like many of his generation followed his father underground at the Ogilvie Colliery. He enlisted in the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

in April 1940, during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, joining the

Monmouthshire Regiment The Monmouthshire Regiment was a Territorial infantry regiment of the British Army. Originating in units of rifle volunteers formed in Monmouthshire in 1859, the regiment served in the Second Anglo-Boer War and both World War I and World War II ...

and seeing action from his battalion's landing shortly after the D-Day landings of 6 June 1944 through the advance into

North-west Europe Northwestern Europe, or Northwest Europe, is a loosely defined subregion of Europe, overlapping Northern and Western Europe. The region can be defined both geographically and ethnographically. Geographic definitions Geographically, Northw ...

. He was wounded at

Falaise Falaise may refer to: Places * Falaise, Ardennes, France * Falaise, Calvados, France ** The Falaise pocket was the site of a battle in the Second World War * La Falaise, in the Yvelines ''département'', France * The Falaise escarpment in Quebe ...

in the breakout from the

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

bridgehead.

Details

Chapman was 25 years old, and a

corporal Corporal is a military rank in use in some form by many militaries and by some police forces or other uniformed organizations. The word is derived from the medieval Italian phrase ("head of a body"). The rank is usually the lowest ranking non ...

in the 3rd Battalion,

, British Army during the Second World War when the following action took place for which he was awarded the VC. On 2 April 1945, near the Dortmund-Ems canal, Germany, Corporal Chapman's section came under heavy machine-gun fire from German units dug in and concealed, causing many casualties. He ordered his men to take cover and went forward alone with a

Bren gun The Bren gun was a series of light machine guns (LMG) made by Britain in the 1930s and used in various roles until 1992. While best known for its role as the British and Commonwealth forces' primary infantry LMG in World War II, it was also use ...

, mowing down the enemy at point-blank range, forcing them to retire. His section isolated, Corporal Chapman again halted the enemy advances with his Bren gun, at one time firing it over his shoulder while lying supine on his back in a shallow fold in the ground, to cover those bringing him ammunition. He then carried in his Company Commander, an officer, who was lying wounded, but on the way back the officer was killed by further German fire and Corporal Chapman wounded in the thigh. Refusing hospitalisation he returned to his section and ensured the consolidation of the ground gained which took a further two hours of fighting.

Honours and awards

* 13 July 1945 – Teutoburger Wald, Germany, 2 April 1945, Corporal Edward Thomas Chapman, 3rd Bn, Monmouthshire Regiment:

Later life

He later achieved the rank of company sergeant major. In the Coronation Honours List of 1953, he was awarded the

British Empire Medal The British Empire Medal (BEM; formerly British Empire Medal for Meritorious Service) is a British and Commonwealth award for meritorious civil or military service worthy of recognition by the Crown. The current honour was created in 1922 to ...

. He lived in

New Inn New Inn - ( cy, Y Dafarn Newydd) - is a village and community directly south east of Pontypool, within the County Borough of Torfaen in Wales, within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire. It had a population of 5,986 at the 2011 Census. L ...

Torfaen Torfaen (; cy, Torfaen ) is a county borough in the south-east of Wales. Torfaen is bordered by the county of Monmouthshire to the east, the city of Newport to the south, and the county boroughs of Caerphilly and Blaenau Gwent to the south ...

until his death on 3 February 2002 aged 82, and is buried in

Panteg cemetery Panteg Cemetery is one of the four main cemeteries in the Borough of Torfaen in Wales (the other three are found in Blaenavon, Llwyncelyn and Cwmbran.) The cemetery covers an area of approximately 20 acres. The first interment took place on July 23 ...

near New Inn.http://www.victoriacross.org.uk/bbchapma.htm Death announcement He worked at ICI Fibres at

Pontypool Pontypool ( cy, Pont-y-pŵl ) is a town and the administrative centre of the county borough of Torfaen, within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire in South Wales. It has a population of 28,970. Location It is situated on the Afon Lwyd ri ...

for 25 years. He was a noted breeder of Welsh Mountain Ponies which he exhibited and showed at the

Royal Welsh Show The Royal Welsh Show ( cy, Sioe Frenhinol Cymru) is organised by the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society, which was formed in 1904. It takes place in July of each year, at Llanelwedd, near Builth Wells, in Powys, Mid Wales. The first show was hel ...

Builth Wells Builth Wells (; cy, Llanfair-ym-Muallt) is a market town and community in the county of Powys and historic county of Brecknockshire (Breconshire), mid Wales, lying at the confluence of rivers Wye and Irfon, in the Welsh (or upper) part of ...

References

* '' British VCs of World War 2'' (John Laffin, 1997) * ''

Monuments to Courage David Charles Harvey (29 July 1946 – 4 March 2004) was a historian and author. He is notable for his seminal work, ''Monuments To Courage'', which documents the graves of almost all recipients of the Victoria Cross, a task that took him over 36 ...

'' (David Harvey, 1999) * ''

The Register of the Victoria Cross ''The Register of the Victoria Cross'' is a reference work that provides brief information on every Victoria Cross awarded until the publication date. Each entry provides a summary of the deed, along with a photograph of the recipient and the fol ...

'' (This England, 1997) * Tony Williams, Stephen Power, Edwin King, Brandon Smith

External links

Obituary from the Times online

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chapman, Edward Thomas British World War II recipients of the Victoria Cross 1920 births 2002 deaths Monmouthshire Regiment soldiers British Army personnel of World War II People from Rhymney Recipients of the British Empire Medal Welsh soldiers British Army recipients of the Victoria Cross Welsh recipients of the Victoria Cross Welsh military personnel