Richard Graham Chapell
Information and photographs supplied by
Steve Brew
Historian; 41 (F) Squadron
Richard Graham Chapell
Richard Graham Chapell was born in Plympton, Devon, on 22 September 1897, and in 1901 was living at the Grammar School in Seymour Rd, Plympton, where his father was the Head Master.
He was commissioned into the Gordon Highlanders in October 1915 and subsequently served in France and Palestine, but was wounded in action in the latter theatre in May 1918. He remained with the Army until July 1922, for some of that period in the Reserve, but then applied to join the RAF and was granted a Short Service Commission as a Pilot Officer in January 1923. He undertook his flying training at Duxford, but a collision between his motorcycle and a cow on the road between Salisbury and Southampton late one night in May 1923 put him in hospital, followed by six weeks sick leave.
Following his recuperation, he was posted to 41 Squadron on 7 July 1923, but he was involved in 41 Squadron’s first peacetime flying accident on on 30 August 1923, when he crashed near Orpington (southeast London). He was undertaking a cross-country flight in an Avro 504K when he began to experience engine trouble. He landed near Goddington and inspected his engine, but was unable to identify any specific problem. Deciding to continue his journey, he took off again but shortly thereafter the aircraft turned on its side and nose-dived near Orpington, violently striking the ground. The fuselage was smashed by the impact and Chapell was seriously injured. He was admitted to Queen’s Hospital in Frognal with a broken upper jaw, broken nose and other cuts and bruises. He spent six months was on sick leave recuperating. A subsequent Court of Enquiry concluded that the cause of the accident was an error of judgement by Chapell because he took off ‘from a confined area’ at Goddington at too low a speed and stalled. This ended his brief tenure with 41 Squadron.
Chapell was promoted to Flying Officer in mid-January 1924, but was involved in another flying accident in early December 1924, when he ran out of fuel, suffered engine failure and force-landed in Southwark Park, London. This episode had repercussions for him as his seniority as Flying Officer was reduced by ten days. However, things only got worse for him, and he filed for bankruptcy in November 1925. Presumably as a result, he resigned his Short Service Commission in August 1926.
Chapell led an intriguing subsequent life in Western Australia, to where he emigrated in June 1927. In May 1929, he was convicted and fined for stealing a hat, and eighteen months later was charged with wilful murder in the shooting death of his business partner at Kadji Farm, Morawa, with whose wife he was having an affair. In January 1932, he was acquitted of the charge when the jury found it was an accident, and he was released. Two months later, he married his dead business partner’s widow and they remained together for the ensuing almost fifty years.
Chapell had two further brushes with the law in 1934 when he was convicted twice within three weeks for running a gambling business from his tobacconist shop. He was briefly commissioned in the Royal Australian Army in 1940, but re-joined as a Private in December 1941 and served as an NCO in Australia until May 1944. He joined the Provost Corps but was considered unsuitable on 25 April 1944 and transferred to guard duty at POW Camp 16 at Marrinup WA, on 2 May 1944. However, they also decided his services were not required and he was discharged from the Australian Army on 15 May 1944.
He remained in Western Australia for the rest of his life, as a farmer and postal vote officer, residing at Tibradden Station, via Geraldton, in 1952, at Hillway Farm, Mt Helena, WA, in 1962 (Wool Brand ‘R6C’), and had moved to Katanning by 1980, although the exact date may have been much earlier. He died at Bethshan Home for the Aged in Katanning on 15 May 1981, and was buried in Grave 590 of the Anglican Section of Katanning Cemetery on 18 May 1981. Olive, his business partner’s former wife, was buried in the same grave in July 1997.
Richard Graham Chapell. Richard Graham Chapell.