Baxenden Lads: Chevin WT

SGT. 5435 WILLIAM THOMAS CHEVIN
20th October 1918

SGT. 5435 WILLIAM THOMAS CHEVIN of the Royal Field Artillery died of enteric fever in hospital in the small town of Nimach, near Udaipur, Central India, on October 20th 1918.

Will formerly lived in Baxenden at 696 Manchester Road, but shortly after the war started he moved to 21 Dineley Street, Church. Before the war he was for many years the foreman horsekeeper for Messrs. Kearns Allen and Co. of Baxenden. He was a farrier/shoeing-smith in the Royal Field Artillery. When war was declared Will went with his regiment to Egypt, then served in the Dardenelles (Gallipoli) and later served in Mesopotamia. He suffered badly from malaria several times, and he was convalescing at the Royal Field Artillery training depot at Nimach when he died, weakened by ill-health, during the flu epidemic of 1918. Will had never had home leave in four years of war.

Nimach Municipal Cemetery holds just twelve British war graves. Almost all are artillery men who died of either flu or enteric fever.