Harry Frederick Haines Chant

Story:
Harry Frederick Haines Chant was born in Preston Plucknett, Somerset, on 11th October 1894 and baptised at Bincombe, Dorset, on 23rd December 1894, the son of Frederick William Chant and Kate Chant (née Haines).  The family moved shortly after to Iwerne Minster where Harry lived for a considerable amount of his early civilian life.  His mother died in 1909. He enlisted on 3rd November 1915 but was not mobilized until 30th January 1917 when he joined the Royal Army Service Corps as a Farrier (Service No. TS/9184).  He served in Salonika and was eventually discharged on 14th March 1919.  He was awarded the Victory and British War medals.  The 1921 Census shows him living with his newly remarried father at The Hollow, Iwerne Minster, Dorset, assisting him in his Blacksmith business. He married Annie Victoria Tribble in the Exeter, Devon, area on 17th December 1922 and they went on to have three children.  By the 1939 Register he was boarding at 13 Danielsfield Road, Yeovil, Somerset, and was working as an aircraft fitter whilst his wife lived with her brothers in Crediton, Devon, where she died in 1942.  There is a record of him having remarried Dorothy M. Simpson, in Exeter, Devon, during 1946. His death is recorded at the Salisbury, Wiltshire, District Registry in 1977.