Born on 26 May 1890 to Joseph and Mary Anne Chilwell who had a chemist's shop on Oxford St, London. Eric Robert Chilwell was an auctioneer's clerk living in Chiswick in 1911. When he was a boy his family had moved to Tamworth, Staffs, where he attended the Grammar School.
In March 1915 he writes to his parents from the Tower of London having joined the Honourable Artillery Company.
In July 1915 he was sent to France. On 18 March 1915 he was commissioned Second Lieutenant.
In September 1916 he had recently had a few days' leave in Paris, where he stayed in a hotel and enjoyed hot water and a bath as well as seeing the sights for the first time. On the 16th whilst leading his men in an assault on an enemy position he was killed by a sniper's bullet.
He is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial, and copies of his letters are in the Imperial War Museum. The details of life in the trenches are remarkable but they don't convey the full horror that we associate with that experience. Perhaps he was sheltering his parents from the real truth.
He has the distinction of being the only casualty of the First World War named Chilwell.
By his great-Neice.
