Record

Code	DS/UK/25
Dates	1882-1958
Person Name	Chettle; Henry Francis (1882-1958); Lt Col; Director of Records and Deputy Controller
Surname	Chettle
Forenames	Henry Francis
Title	Lt Col
Epithet	Director of Records and Deputy Controller
Source	1938 Hornsey Journal in: CWGC Archive, P03 Pt.2; London Gazette; CWGC Archive, P 03 Pt.1 & Pt.2; CWGC Archive, F100; CWGC Archive, Add 7/10/1
Biographical Note	Lieutenant Colonel Henry Francis Chettle CMG OBE was the Commission's Director of Records after the First World War. He was born on 23 December 1882 in Toxteth, Liverpool. At the age of four months his whole family moved to Hampstead London. Between 1901 and 1905, Chettle undertook a BA Honours course at Corpus Christi, Oxford University. Then, between 1907 and 1911, he read Law in London and served as a Private in the Inns of Court O.T.C. In 1914, Henry married Mary M. Morris (sadly she would later die in the Spanish Influenza epidemic of 1919). The same year, he joined the Army Service Corps and was sent to France. Early duties include running a field bakery at Le Mons and railway supply work, where his knowledge of French proved very useful. Between 1915 and 1916, Chettle was promoted to Captain and attached to the Graves Registration Commission. He was later transferred to the General List and appointed as a Staff Captain at the War Office. He then served in the Directorate of Graves Registration & Enquiries, France. In 1918, Chettle was awarded an Order of the British Empire and in November of the same year, he was promoted to Temporary Major. In April 1919, he joined the Imperial War Graves Commission as Director of Records. Having lost his first wife in 1919 to Spanish flu, Chettle married again in 1921 to Louisa Saunders. In 1932, Chettle was as a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (CMG) for his outstanding services in establishing the Commission’s Overseas Joint Committees. He was appointed Deputy Controller in 1943 and then retired from the IWGC in 1947. Lt. Col. Henry Francis Chettle CMG OBE died on 5 February 1958, aged 75. He is buried in Christ Church Churchyard, Crouch End, London.
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