Paul Crosby Chamberlain was the fifth born son of Daniel Henry Chamberlain and Alice Maria Ingersoll. He was born on December 18, 1883 in New York, NY where his family lived after his father left the governorship of South Carolina. His middle name and birth information are found on his Sept. 15, 1911 passport application found on Ancestry.com.
Paul lived with his father and younger brother Waldo on the family farm in West Brookfield, at the time of the 1900 United States census. He was age sixteen and attending school at that time. He attended Yale Medical School beginning in Oct. 1901.
He became a journalist, according to the above mentioned passport application, and went to England. Paul served in the Royal field artillery and was wounded in the battle of Flanders in 1915. An article in the Springfield Daily Republican of Oct. 28, 1915 states that he was a 2nd lieutenant at the time, and recovering in the Ewell and Epson war hospital on Epson Downs near London.
A History of West Brookfield, 1675 - 1990, by Jeffrey H. Fiske, page 163, states that Paul and his wife were killed in a London bombing raid in December of 1940. According to this reference, Paul had become a British citizen after service in World War I, and was a member of the London home guard. England & Wales Death Index, 1916 - 2005, Ancestry.com has Paul C. Chamberlain, age 50, death Dec. 1940, Westminister, London, England. There is also an entry for a Marian Chamberlain at same time and location. England & Wales Marriage Index has entry in July - Sept. of 1933 for a Paul Chamberlain and a Marian Greenaway. Further research needed to confirm that the records refer to Paul Crosby Chamberlain, son of Daniel Henry Chamberlain.
I would be interested in learning more about the life of Paul Chamberlain from the time he left West Brookfield until the time of his death. Please contact me if you have photos or further information.
Further information about the Chamberlain family is available at West Brookfield, Massachusetts Genealogy Project
