College
Shoreditch College
Job(s)
Teacher employed by the London County Council
WW1 rank
Second Lieutenant
20th (Tyneside Scottish) Bn., Northumberland Fusiliers
Theatre of war
Europe
Date of death
15 October 1916
Location of death
France
Buried/memorial
Erquinghem-Lys Churchyard Extension
Awards/Honours
Military Medal for gallantry in France while acting Company Sergeant Major in the 1/4th Battalion Highlanders
1914-1915 Star
British War Medal
Victory Medal
Biography
Second Lieutenant John Cyril Chalmers joined the Cameron Highlanders as a Private in September 1914. He quickly rose through the ranks becoming Acting Sergeant Major on 24th May 1916. Second Lieutenant Chalmers received his commission 9th September 1916 and joined the Northumberland Fusiliers on the 19th September. There is some confusion about his death and his body was never found. His official record states his death as 15th October 1916, although some sources (including the telegram sent to his parents) state his death as being on the 16th. Second Lieutenant Chalmers was 24 at the time of his death and his remembered at Erquinghem-Lys Churchyard Extension in France.
Sources
Shoreditch College War memorial photograph
London County Council Record of Service
London Gazette 27th October, 1916
MIC Public Records Office [Now National Archives], Kew
Peter Doyle – ‘Doomed Youth’: The War Dead of the Woolwich Polytechnic, 1914-18