H01

About John Chapman

I was born 30th September 1935 in Birmingham and moved to Stroud in Gloucestershire in 1940. After leaving Marling School I went to Southampton University and graduated with an honours degree in Mathematics and Aeronautics but having been bitten by the computer bug. I spent the next 35 years of my life working in the computer industry mainly in Toronto, Melbourne, London and Berkshire. I retired in 1992.

I have been married to Ann since 1966 and have three children Judith, Ian and Graham.

I have been a Parish Councillor since 1976 and was a District Councillor between 1979 and 2007, also governor of several schools and served many years as a part time Lay Inspector of schools. I was for many years Deputy Chairman of the Rail Users Consultative Committee for Western England and Chairman of the South East Museums Service. As a District Councillor my main area of activity was with Education

In recent years I have become almost totally absorbed with the history of the Royal Berkshire Regiment initially in the First World War and latterly with the 66^th Regiment at Maiwand. I am a trustee of the Regimental museum in Salisbury. This started out as a research project at Reading University and we have published seven books so far. Also I am building up a database of men who served in the Royal Berkshire Regiment and its predecessors also of men from Berkshire who fought in WW1 (currently running around 120,000 entries) and compiling a detailed history of the Regiment during the First World War. I am currently working on a history of the 4th Battalions in the First World War, having been co-author of six other volumes.

As a member of Project Purley, and currently chairman, I have had a long standing interest in the history of our Parish, Purley on Thames. This has resulted in my acquiring a vast archive of material about the parish. I give talks regularly to local societies – for more details click here

My three children have their own connections to the internet:-

Judith’s e-mail address is:- Judith@holmlea17.freeserve.co.uk

Ian’s e-mail address is firedancer2012@hotmail.com

Graham’s e-mail address is graham_chapman@dell.com Graham’ wife Jenny has her own website – click here .

H01 21/3/08