Joseph Arthur Chaldecott

Story:
Joseph Arthur Chaldecott was born in 1894 in East Orchard, Dorset. He was the son of Arthur Edmund Chaldecott, a Journeyman Baker, and Selina Hannah Chaldecott (nee Parham). His siblings included William Thomas Chaldecott, born in 1901, who also died at sea in the war. At the time of the 1911 Census he was single, working as a Stable Boy and living at the White Horse Hotel, Maiden Newton, Dorset. He enlisted in Maiden Newton as a Private in the Dorset Yeomanry (Queen's Own) (Service No. 584) which later amalgamated with the Corps of Hussars, attached to the 1st/1st Battalion of his old Regiment, the Dorset Yeomanry (New Service No. 230055). He served in Egypt and Palestine and was awarded the Victory and British War Medals. He died by drowning whilst in action on 13th November 1917 and was buried at Ramleh War Cemetery, Near Tel Aviv, Palestine (Israel) (grave id. P.57). In 1918 the family were living at Chettle, Dorset, and he is remembered on the Sixpenny Handley War Memorial, Dorset. His father died in 1918. His mother had been awarded a dependent's pension covering both of her son's who had perished.