Current Information:

Enlisted-Willesden

Calcutta (Bhowanipore) Cemetery, India

When the war broke out in August, 1914, battalions of the regular Army serving in the far flung corners of the Empire were recalled to Britain as soon as possible so as to add their weight to the war effort. But their places had to be filled somehow as there was still a need for a British military presence abroad, especially in India where an independence movement was simmering. At first it was Territorial Army battalions that were sent there but as the war progressed Garrison Battalions, made up of soldiers unfit for front line duty filled the gap. The decision as to their fitness was made at time of enlistment or after previous front line service where the soldier had suffered wounds or sickness. They were sent to various parts of the empire on garrison duties to release fit soldiers for front line duty. By the end of the war there were eighteen Garrison Battalions in India. 

Lionel Chappell died from unspecified causes on 7th January, 1915, while serving with the 9th Middlesex, one of the territorial battalions sent to India in 1914.