Robert Nevin Chancellor

Flying Officer

Conflict:

WW2

Additional Information:

Son of William Galway Chancellor, and of Jane Chancellor (nee Nevin), of Dundonald, Belfast, Northern Ireland.

References:

CWGC

NZ WAR GRAVES

Public Contributions:

Nevin Chancellor was my father's older brother. ("Robert Nevin" was his mother's father's full name, this man had in total 16 children from 2 wives, of whom Jane, Nevin's mother, ("Jeanie Dick" Nevin...) was from the second wife.). Family story has it that he and his father, William Galway Chancellor, did not get on, and Nevin left home (Solitude, Dundonald) and emigrated, by himself, at the age of 14, to New Zealand. This must have been around the time that his mother, Jeanie/Jane, herself died. About ten years later, and without any contact in the interim, he returned home briefly to see the family (according to family history, he turned up one day in the farmyard with a live turkey under his arm, it was near Christmas). We did not hear about where and how he died until after the war, but his older sister Dorothy discovered about 20 years ago that his name was included on a war memorial in Singapore. This was a matter of great pride to us, his remaining family. I have a large number of sepia photos of Nevin and his ANZAC airforce colleagues, in uniform, in some tropical location, possibly India (although family history has it that his plane was shot down over Burma). These must have been returned to his family as his possessions, there was nothing else apart from his tropical-issue airforce jacket and a pith helmet. I also have his posthumous WW2 medal. He was unmarried and without offspring as far as we ever knew. Nevin was the second oldest of a family of four (Dorothy was the oldest, my father was the youngest; another brother, younger than Nevin, died from pneumonia at age 8, and his mother died shortly after). Few of us remain, but I can't say enough how proud we are of him, and how much we think of him, to this day. I don't know his DOB but if he was 29 when he died in 1943 he must have been born in late 1913-early 1914. I had thought him older than that, as I have a photo of the four siblings with my father, the youngest, being around the age of 18 months (he was born in April 1916) and Nevin looked to be about 12-14, I would have thought him born around 1906-07. Uncle Nevin, may you rest in peace. You made the ultimate cotribution to the configuration of the world as it is today. You are remembered with love and immense pride by people you never knew. xxx Read More

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Casualty

Service Number:

411859

Name:

Robert Nevin Chancellor

Rank:

Flying Officer

Date of Birth:

Not known

Date of Enlistment:

Not known

Unit:

Royal New Zealand Air Force

Casualty Details

Cause of Death:

Not known

Date of Death:

18 April 1943

Day of Death:

Sunday

Age at Death:

Conflict:

WW2

Embarkation Details

Embarkation Body:

Royal New Zealand Air Force

Text in italics supplied by Cenotaph Online, Auckland War Memorial Museum

Cemetery

Cemetery:

Singapore Memorial

Cemetery Reference:

Column 431.

Cemetery Location:

Singapore