Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-
Born on 15th December 1897 Wilfred was the youngest of the thirteen children born to Hartlepool pork butcher George Chambers and his wife Mary Anne Challis, all the children having been born in Albert Street, Stranton. After two of his elder brothers, Harry and Stanley, emigrated to Canada at the start of 1904, Wilfred, his parents and the rest of the family followed, all making for a new life in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
The 1906 census shows that the family had settled in Ward 1, Winnipeg with all the siblings still living with their parents. By 1916 only three boys were listed as living at that address and of those three Frank and Thomas were overseas with the CEF and Wilf was at Camp Hughes having enlisted on 11th March. The tallest of the Chambers’ boys standing at over six feet, Wilf became Private 874688 attached to the 184th Battalion, giving his father as his next of kin and his job as a clerk.
The Battalion embarked for England on 11th November 1916 on the SS Empress of Britain under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel W. H. Sharpe and on arrival at Shorncliffe Camp, Sussex the battalion was absorbed into the 11th Reserve Battalion. Sent on a training course at the beginning of January 1917 on return to his unit Wilf was appointed acting Corporal, a rank he revoked on being posted to France with the 27th (City of Winnipeg) Battalion on 18th April, where he joined them in the rest camp at Aux Reitz. Private Chambers’ first taste of action would have been at the end of the month when the battalion formed part of the fifth line of defence and then moved into the trenches at Fresnoy at the start of May. Over the summer months the battalion found itself on the front line at Ypres and then on 6th November 1917 at 6am the battalion, along with the 31st on their left and the 26th on their right, attacked the village of Passchendaele. The 27th lost 13 officers and 240 other ranks, of which Private 874688 was one.
Of the four sons of George and Mary Anne Chambers who enlisted to fight in WW1, Wilfred and his older brother Samuel both in the Canadian Forces, did not return.
Wilfred Chambers is one of the more than 54,000 officers and men from the Commonwealth Forces whose graves are not known, and whose names are remembered on the Menin Gate.
Wilfred Chambers is remembered In Hartlepool in W111.86 page 9 and at West Hartlepool in W111.54 page 11
He is also remembered on the Canadian Virtual War Memorial and in the Canadian Book of Remembrance.
Canadian Book of Remembrance
Canadian Virtual War Memorial
The CWGC entry for Private Chambers