Arthur Ernest Chanter
Stephen LearmonthArthur was born in 1894 in Tallangatta, Victoria. He was one of four sons to Frederick Moore and Maria Ann (née Hore) Chanter. On the 1st of May 1900, Maria passed away leaving Frederick to care for four boys under the age of 13. In 1903 the family were still living at Granya with Frederick still working as a miner. By 1911 Frederick had moved the family to Melbourne where they were living in South Melbourne. Frederick was working as a labourer in the area. All four of Frederick’s sons would enlist during the war.
Arthur enlisted on the 21st of July 1915 at Melbourne. He was initially placed with the 6th Reinforcements for the 22nd Battalion. Given the rank of Private, he was allocated the Regimental Number 2620. There is no information about Arthurs earliest service. The first recorded event is him embarking at Melbourne on HMAT A38 Ulysses on the 27th of October 1915. In late January of 1916 he was admitted to the 3rd Auxiliary Hospital at Heliopolis. The reason is listed as “weakness”. One month later he was allotted to the 7th Battalion and joined them at Serapeum, 120 kilometres north-east of Cairo, on the 24th of February.
After completing further training in the desert sands around Serapeum, the battalion embarked on HMAT Megantic at Alexandria on the 26th of March and arrived in southern France at the Port of Marseilles five days later. The ship encountered heavy swells during the passage which resulted in two-thirds of the officers and men suffering from seasickness.The strength of the battalion at this time was 28 officers and 969 other ranks.
The battalion entrained at Marseilles and it took three days to reach their final destination near Bailleul in France. Unfortunately during the journey the train ran over and killed a Canadian soldier who tried to cross on the train buffers in the centre of the train while it was trying to shunt into a siding.
The lead up to the 7th Battalion’s first major encounter has already been mentioned in Jim McMahon's story. It’s not known at what stage of the battle on the 25th of July that Arthur was killed. The day was chaotic and by the time the battalion had occupied what was left of the village of Pozieres the enemy shelling had reached an average of 15 to 20 shells per minute.
Arthur was buried in the Gordon Dump Cemetery, at Ovillers-la Boisselle in Picardie, France. Rev. R Harris, who was attached to the 1st Pioneer Battalion conducted the service. Arthur is also remembered on the Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, and the Towong Shire Boer War and WW1 Memorial in the Memorial Hall in Tallangatta. For his service during the First World War, Arthur was awarded the 1914-1915 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.
