Francis Capper Charmier MA

• Matriculated: 1899

• Born: 28 September 1880

• Died: 16 July 1916

• Regiment: United Provinces Volunteer Light Horse, Indian Army

• Grave/Memorial: Not identified

Family background

b. 28 September 1880 in Kensington, London SW, as the tenth child (of 17 children) of Major-General Francis Edward Archibald Chamier, CB, CIE (1833–1923), and the eldest son with his second wife, Amy Macdonell Chamier (née Capper) (1857–1938) (m. 1878). In 1891 the family lived at 39, Philbeach Gardens, London SW5 (three servants); in 1901 and 1911 at 55, Warwick Rd, London SW5 (three servants).

 

Parents

General Chamier, Chamier’s father, was born in India, the son of Henry Chamier (1795–1867) of the Madras Civil Service, whose father had also been in the Indian Civil Service. Indeed, the family had an unbroken record of over 150 years in the Civil Service of the old Honourable East India Company. The Chamier family were descended from Daniel Chamier (1696–1741), a Reformed minister from Neufchâtel who sought refuge in England in 1691. General Chamier entered the military service of the East India Company in 1850. He became aide-de-campe to General Sir James Outram and took part in the first relief, defence and capture of Lucknow in the Indian rebellion of 1857. He continued to serve in various capacities in the Province of Oudh until placed on the Supernumerary List in 1887. He was awarded a CB in 1907 on the fiftieth anniversary of the Relief of Lucknow. In 1860 he married Annie Maria Caroline Johnstone (1838–1875) the daughter of James Gardiner Johnstone (1798–1846) a Scottish medical doctor who served in India from 1820 to his death in 1846. There were eight children from this marriage (six sons and two daughters). In 1878 he married Amy Macdonell Capper, the daughter of William Copeland Capper (1832–1902), who was the only Civil Officer at Malaon, Oudh, on the outbreak of the Indian Rebellion in 1857. He mounted his horse and rode into Lucknow, and was there throughout the siege. There were nine children from this marriage (six sons and three daughters).

 

 

Siblings and their families

Half-brother of:

(1) Henry Deschamps (1862–1950); married (1890) Eliza Mary Adelaide Tyrrell (c.1869–1940), two daughters;

(2) Saunders James (1863–98); married (1895) Alice Zélie Chamier (née Norton, 1864–1945); one son;

(3) Jeanne Henriette (1864–1955); later Budden after her marriage (1885) to Hanson Odell Budden (c.1848–1926); seven children;

(4) Edward Maynard Deschamps (later Sir, KCIE, KCSI) (1866–1945); married (1894] Alice Mary Cobb (1864–1940); three children;

(5) Mary Home (1867–1957); later D’Arcy after her marriage (1891) to William Edmond D’Arcy (d. 1892 in India; then Shaw after her second marriage (1899), to Charles Edward Martin Shaw (1839–1909);

(6) William St George OBE (1870–1946); married (1906) Alice Catherine Lewis (c.1878–1967); two children;

(7) John Campbell (1871–75);

(8) Stephen Du Pré (1873–1943); married (1904) Margaret Sarah Storey (c.1884–1963); three children).

Brother of:

(1) Jessie Antoinette (1879–81);

(2) Alfred Edward (1882–1965);

(3) John Adrian (later Air Commodore, CB, CMG, DSO, OBE, FRAeS) (1883–1974); married (1918) Edwina Ratcliffe Lordly (1890–1981); two children;

(4) Barbara Dorothy (1885–1971);

(5) Richard Outram, CIE (1888–1980);

(6) Anthony (1891–1958); married (1925) Sylvia Ada Paula Bratton (c.1900–56]); two children);

(7) Margaret Constance (1893–95);

(8) Frederic Thompson (1896–1962).

Henry Deschamps was a Colonel in the Connaught Rangers.

Saunders James was a Captain in the Royal Artillery serving in India, and died of acute dysentery at Seewee.

Hanson Odell Budden served in the Indian Education Service.

Edward Maynard Deschamps, had a distinguished career as a barrister and a high court judge in India, before returning to England and working as the Legal Adviser and Solicitor to the Secretary of State for India (1917–33).

William Edmond D’Arcy was a member of the Indian Forestry Service.

Charles Edward Martin Shaw retired from the army in 1891 as a Surgeon-Lt-Colonel.

William St George retired as a Colonel in the Indian Army. He served in China in 1900 and landed in France in December 1914 with the 7^th Meerut Cavalry Brigade.

Alfred Edward read History at Oriel College and during the First World War he was serving as a District Commissioner in the East African Protectorate (from 1920 Kenya), where he was described as a ‘vocal champion of native rights’.

John Adrian was a career officer in the Indian Army and then the Royal Air Force, and was the Commanding Officer of 15^th Wing when F.H. Hodgson, of whom he thought particularly well, was accidentally killed in November 1918. After the war he worked in the aviation industry (1929–39). By 1933 he was Secretary-General of the Air League of the British Empire (now the Air League), whose aim was to remedy the lack of interest in the country in aeronautical developments and to stress the importance of aviation commercially and for national defence. In 1938 the League founded the Air Defence Cadet Corps (now the Air Training Corps) and when he was recalled into the RAF in 1939 he became its first Commandant. His son, Sergeant Patrick Anthony Chamier, RAFVR, died on active service on 11 November 1940, aged 19, and is now the only member of the RAF to be buried in Harare (Pioneer) Cemetery, Zimbabwe.

 

 

Barbara Dorothy published books under the pseudonym of J.D. Chamier, including in 1934 an overly sympathetic biography of Kaiser Wilhelm II, Fabulous Monster, and became a miniaturist and portrait painter of some repute in London and Paris.

Richard Outram was commissioned in the Indian Army and served with the Mahratta Light Infantry in Mesopotamia and became a prisoner of war after the capitulation of Kut Al Amara in April 1916. After the war he continued to serve in the army and became secretary to the Governor of the United Provinces. He retired to England as a Colonel.

Anthony served in the Indian Army Reserve of Officers in Iraq attached to the 90^th Punjabis, becoming a Captain in the Political Department. He later became a broker with interests in Singapore.

Frederic Thompson was gazetted Second Lieutenant in the Connaught Rangers in January 1916. He subsequently transferred to the Cameronians and retired in 1948 with the honorary rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

 

Education

Like his younger brothers John Adrian, Richard Outram and Anthony, Chamier attended St Paul’s School from 1893 to 1899, where he was a diligent, careful, classical scholar who took pains with his work, made gradual progress, and won the Sleath Prize for Latin Prose by translating a section from Macaulay’s five-volume History of England (1849) and the Greek Verse Prize by translating a section of Matthew Arnold’s dramatic poem Empedocles on Etna (c.1852). On 26 July 1899 he acted the part of Saturio’s daughter in a performance of Plautus’ comedy The Persian. He matriculated at Magdalen as a Demy in Classics on 17 October 1899, having been exempted from Responsions. He took the First Public Examination in Trinity Term 1900 and Hilary Term 1901, when he was awarded a 2^nd in Classical Moderations. But after that, he seems to have read for a Pass Degree, for in Michaelmas Term 1903 he took Groups A1 (Greek and/or Latin Literature/Philosophy), and B3 (Elements of Political Economy). He also passed the Qualifying Examination for the Indian Civil Service in 1903, and he took his BA on 16 June 1904 and his MA in 1909. He became “in charge of” Tehri State in the United Provinces of India.

 

Military and war service

According to the Indian Army List of April 1915, Chamier was first commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Indian Army Reserve of Officers on 20 December 1910. On 12 November 1912 he was appointed to the Gorakhpur Squadron of the United Provinces Horse 1^st (Southern) Regiment, based in Cawnpore with troops in Allahabad, Ghanipur, Lucknow and Gorakhpur. On 2 July 1915 Chamier was transferred to the United Provinces Horse 2^nd (Northern) Regiment based at Dehra Dun with troops at Bareilly, Naini Tal, Meerut, Agra and Mussoorie. He was noted as having passed the Proficiency Examination for Volunteer Officers. He died of cholera on 16 July 1916 at Pratapnagar, India. His will was proved on 5 January 1917. On 3 August 1916, the diarist and Fellow of Magdalen C.C.J. Webb noted Chamier’s death in his Diary “with great sorrow”, commenting: “He was a very good fellow and I was attached to him. […] Few of my old pupils corresponded with me more often: […] I was very fond of him.” He left £677 7s 2d. He is not listed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

 

Bibliography

For the books and archives referred to here in short form, refer to the Slow Dusk Bibliography and Archival Sources.

 

Printed sources:

Günther (1924), p. 470.

 

Archival sources:

 OUA: UR 2/1/38.

OUA (DWM): C.C.J. Webb, Diaries, MS. Eng. misc. e. 1161.

 

On-line sources:

 ‘Francis Edward Archibald Chamier’: https://gw.geneanet.org/madile?lang=en&p=francis+edward+archibald&n=chamier

(accessed 5 March 2018).