Chart, Geoffrey
Private
No. 10196, 4th Regiment, South African Infantry Brigade
Died of wounds on Sunday 23 September 1917 (aged 36)
Buried:
Nine Elms British Cemetery, Belgium (Grave I. E. 6)
Commemorated:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Mitcham War Memorial, Surrey, England
Family grave headstone in Bangor Cemetery, Newtownards Road, Bangor
BIOGRAPHY
At civil registration and in baptismal records, Geoffrey is the only forename recorded. On his daughter’s wedding certificate his forenames are recorded as Geoffrey Gordon Gilbert.
Geoffrey Chart was born on 17 September 1881 in Mitcham, Surrey and he was a son of Robert Masters Chart JP and Julia Florence Octavia Chart (nee Robinson) who were married on 21 January 1873 in St John’s Church of England Church, Hammersmith, Middlesex. Robert Chart was a son of Edwin Chart, a surveyor, and Florence Robinson was a daughter of Christopher Robinson, a builder. The Chart family lived in St Mary’s, Mitcham.
Robert Masters Chart worked as a surveyor and he and Florence had 13 children:
Christopher (born 5 January 1874 in Mitcham, Surrey; architect and surveyor)
Robert (born 4 December 1875 in Mitcham, Surrey)
Florence Daisy (born 11 January 1876 in Mitcham, Surrey)
Minnie (Dot, born 29 December 1877 in Mitcham, Surrey)
Constance Christmas (born 25 December 1879 in Mitcham, Surrey)
Stephen (born 1880 in Mitcham, Surrey; married Louise Magdlena around 1904; they three children; he served in the Great War as a Lieutenant Colonel, London Rifles; awarded DSO in 1918; town clerk; OBE; Air-Raid Precautions Controller, Mitcham in the Second World War; died 1964)
Geoffrey (born 17 September 1881 in Mitcham, Surrey)
Martin (born 3 November 1882 in Mitcham, Surrey; died 1972)
Esther Catherine (born 18 January 1884 in Mitcham, Surrey; unmarried; died 1969)
Winifred Ida (born 21 February 1885 in Mitcham, Surrey; died 1973)
Eric James (born 1886 in Mitcham, Surrey)
Pattie (born 8 September 1887 in Mitcham, Surrey; died 1974)
Roland (born 14 October 1889 in Mitcham, Surrey; died 1946)
Geoffrey Chart attended Whitgift Grammar School in Croyden and when he left school he worked as a surveyor’s clerk in the family firm. He joined the Army Service Corps at Kensington, London on 10 April 1902and it was noted in his attestation papers that he was 5 feet 6½ inches tall with a fresh complexion, blue eyes and light brown hair. He had a scar over his right eye. He served in the South African War and was discharged on 9 April 1903. He moved to South Africa where he and Margaret Amelia Mitchell were married on 7 April 1908 in Woodstock, Western Cape. They had two children:
Florence Eleanor (born 13 January 1910 in Cape Town, South Africa; died 1946)
Charles Geoffrey (born 10 October 1916 in Cape Town, South Africa; obtained M.A. and M.Litt. degrees; became a clergyman; died 1975)
When Geoffrey Chart joined the South African Expeditionary Forces (SAEF) he and his wife, Margaret Amelia Chart, and their two children were living at 28 Union Street, Cape Town, South Africa.
In civilian life Geoffrey Chart worked as a clerk and, up to 4 October 1916, he also served as a Sergeant with the South African Service Corps (SASC, No. A7738).
Geoffrey Chart joined the SAEF on 5 October 1916; he enlisted in Cape Town, and it was noted in his attestation papers that he was 5 feet 7 inches tall with a fresh complexion, blue eyes and brown hair. He declared that he was 35 years old.
Private Geoffrey Chart (No. 10196) arrived in Rouen on 11 March 1917 and on 20 September 1917 he was wounded so severely near Frezenburg that he died in hospital on 23 September 1917.
Private Geoffrey Chart (No. 10196) was buried in Nine Elms British Cemetery, Belgium and there is a personal inscription on his CWGC headstone:
FOURTH SON OF
ROBERT & FLORENCE CHART
ST. MARY’S, MITCHAM, SURREY, ENGLAND
FOR KING AND COUNTRY
His wife and two children had moved to 16 Beatrice Road, Bangor and, at the time of his death, they were living in Limebrook Cottage, Bingham Street, Bangor. They also lived at 68 Dufferin Avenue, Bangor.
Private Geoffrey Chart (No. 10196) is commemorated on the family grave headstone in Bangor Cemetery, Newtownards Road, Bangor:
In loving memory of
Our dear mother
Margaret Amelia Chart
Who departed this life 26 August 1936
Also our dear father
Geoffrey Chart
Killed in the Great War 23 September 1917
Till He come
It was reported in the Surrey Advertiser that Private Geoffrey Chart’s father was an Alderman of the Surrey County Council and Chairman of the Small Holdings and Allotments Committee.
Geoffrey Chart’s mother, Florence, died on 1 April 1939 and his father, Robert, died on 10 February 1942.