Capt. Marchant - help needed

I have been trying to research and document the life of my grandfather for my father who was orphaned in 1942. He knew very little about his father except a few old WW1 stories and half remembered facts.

We have his death certificate which lists him as Frederick Malcolm Marchant and his year of birth would have been 1883/4 - making him about 31 at the out-break of war. He died in an explosion at the Hawker-Sidley factory in Kingston-upon-Thames on 17 Apr 1942. I do have evidence that he had his AMImecE (Associate Member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers).

Attempts have been made to secure his birth certificate with no luck. I have also recently contacted the ImecE, but they can not find his records and suggested that he may have changed his name. The only way I can think of to determine this, is if someone out there could recognise his picture or his stories and nick name from WW1. I can research only so much at a time - but you all have a large combined knowledge base.

Apparently, his plane caught on fire so often, he was nick-named "Cinders". He also survived falling out of his plane. The RFC actually believed he was dead for a while as they notified his parents that he had died in action. For that fall, he had a metal plate secured to his skull to replace the shattered bone. We have only one picture of him - in uniform. He has a number of medal ribbons on his breast - as it is b&w, I am not confident in my interpretation of them.

There was a Cecil J Marchant and Alexander W Marchant (and I have read of another C Marchant) in the RFC (England) - but I can not locate any pictures of them to compare to my grandfather.

If anyone finds the above information familiar, please post. I have been looking at this road block for some time and can not find any documentation until I know his real name, if different.

Thank you,
Karen
Kitchener, Ontario, Canada

G'day Karen,
In the book The Sky Their Battlefield by Trevor Henshaw, there are 3 Marchant's.

The first Lt E.A. Marchant became a POW on 14 September 1918, after being shot down, but he was a gunner in a Handley Page Bomber, so I guess that rules him out.

The Second was a 2 Lt F.W.G Marchant who died of wounds 25 October 1916, so I guess that rules him out.

The last was a 2 Lt L.W. Marchant, who was a pilot of a DH9, he flew with 98 Squadron so he could be a possibility.

Hope this is of some help.

Regards,
Andrew

[stephen]

Karen, is it possible for you to post the photo that you have of him? I doubt if any of us would recognize him from the photo, but perhaps there are other clues in the picture (squadron markings, etc.) that might send us in the right direction.

Try contacting Tom Tulloch-Marshall - a military genealogist. Phone number (00 44) 372 277149
Hope this helps !
Andrew

I have sent the picture to the web master as I do not have a web page as of yet. I have asked if there is any way he can post it on this string.

My e-mail address is schell.k-m@sympatico.ca if you would like to contact me - I will forward the image direct.

Thanks for all attempts to help!!!

photo of c.j marchant on page 303 The Air Defence of Britain 1914-1918 Cole and Cheesmann 1984

andy

[Scott]

Attached: the photo of Karen's grandfather