Killed in action aged 20
Buried at the Lonsdale Cemetery, Authuile (VIII.A.7).
Philip Spencer - always known as Spencer - was born in Harrow the only son of Dr Frederick Daniel Chattaway F.R.S., M.A. (Oxon.), D.Sc. (London), Ph.D. (Munich), Lecturer in Chemistry, and Elizabeth Bettney. He was baptised at St Mary’s Church Harrow on 26 July 1896.
Spencer was educated at Orley Farm Preparatory School in Harrow, from where he won a scholarship to Eton. He gained an open classical scholarship and went up to Christ Church in 1914, but left to join the army early the next year.
He received his commission as a Second Lieutenant on 4 April 1915, and went to the front with the 6th Battalion of the Cheshire Regiment in September 1916. He was killed in action in France near Thiepval at the age of 20 on 14 October 1916.
He is remembered on the war memorial outside St Margaret’s Church, St Margaret’s Road, Oxford and on the In Memoriam board of Orley Farm School.
His obituary in The Times of 23 October 1916 read as follows:
Second Lieutenant Philip Spencer Chattaway, Cheshire Regiment, only son of Dr. F. D. Chattaway, F.R.S., and Mrs. Chattaway, of Woodstock-road, Oxford, and formerly of Harrow, was killed on October 14. He was educated at Orley Farm Preparatory School, Harrow, and at Eton, where he was a scholar, and in December, 1914, he gained an open classical scholarship at Christ Church, Oxford. He received his commission in April, 1915, went to the front in September, 1916, and fell on October 14, aged 20 years.
Frederick Daniel Chattaway, was appointed Fellow and Praelector of The Queen’s College, Oxford in 1919. He retired in 1934, and died in Torquay at the age of 83 on 26 January 1944. He continued to own 151 Woodstock Road until his death; it was then bought by Nuffield College, and sold in 1970 to a private purchaser.
With thanks to the website of St. Margaret’s Church, St Margaret’s Road, Oxford.