CHAVASSE Arthur Ryland

Additional information on the memorial: Capt R.A.M.C.

Appears in the Worcester/Worcestershire Roll of Honour Book for army casualties located in Worcester Cathedral under Barnt Green casualties.

The following information has been researched and transcribed by Jeff Taylor:
Death of Captain R.A. Chavasse
People of Bromsgrove and district heard with deep regret that Lady Chavasse, of The Linthurst Hill, had sustained a great bereavement in the death of her only son, Captain Arthur Ryland Chavasse, of the Royal Army Medical Corps, while on service in France. The deceased officer, who was 28 years of age, was a member of the profession of which his father, the late Sir Arthur Chavasse, J.P., was a distinguished ornament. About a fortnight before his death news reached home that he had an attack of influenza, and on the 8 March Lady Chavasse received information that he was seriously ill, suffering from bronchial pneumonia. His condition became worse, and on Friday last week Lady Chavasse and one of her daughters crossed the Channel to Havre, where Captain Chavasse lay in hospital. Upon her arrival on Saturday morning Lady Chavasse found that little hopes were entertained of her son’s recovery, and he passed away in the early hours of Sunday. The funeral took place Tuesday afternoon, at Havre, with full military honours. Lady Chavasse and her daughter Esme Chavasse attended, and the coffin was borne by a party of Irish Guards. A large number of floral tributes were sent by many friends Captain Chavasse had made in the hospital and in the town of Havre, where his professional work had partly lain. Lady Chavasse and Miss Esme Chavasse returned to Linthurst on Wednesday.

Captain Chavasse was educated at Harrow School (1901-1903) and then at Hertford College, Oxford, taking his B.A. degree at the age of 20 in 1908. From there he went to St Thomas’s Hospital, and in 1911 he took the degrees of M.B. and B.Ch (Oxford) and the M.R.C.S. and L.R.C.P., of London. He held various posts at St Thomas’s Hospital, getting a large and wide experience. From St Thomas’s he went to Queen Charlotte’s Hospital. He gave up his appointment soon after the war broke out, and joined the Red Cross Motor Ambulance Convoy in France.

In February 1915, he was given a commission as Lieutenant in the Royal Army Medical Corps and had been at the Front since April 1915. Last January he was promoted to the rank of Captain.