Charles Henry Chilcott was born in Tavistock, Devon, in the final quarter of 1919, the son of Harry Harris Chilcott and Florence Elizabeth Philp. He spent part of his childhood at Broad Street, Black Torrington, Devon, where the 1921 census recorded him as a one-year-old son in the family household. In later years his parents lived at Cheriton Fitzpaine, Devon, the village with which his CWGC record identifies him.
Chilcott joined the Royal Air Force as a civilian entrant after March 1938, initially as an aircraft hand and later as a Class F Reservist. By 1940 he was serving as Leading Aircraftman 654152 in 930 Balloon Squadron, part of RAF Balloon Command. He was killed on 12 August 1940, aged 20, during an enemy air raid on the barrage-balloon site at St Vincent’s Sports Ground, Gosport. [1][2]
At only 20, Charles Chilcott died defending the Hampshire coast during one of the opening daylight attacks of the Battle of Britain.
Early Life and Family
Charles Henry Chilcott was born in Devon in 1919, a year after the end of the First World War. His father was Harry Harris Chilcott and his mother Florence Elizabeth Philp, later known as Florence Chilcott. The family’s connection with Black Torrington and Cheriton Fitzpaine places Charles firmly within rural Devon, although his service later took him to the strategically important naval and industrial districts of Hampshire.
In June 1921, he was living on Broad Street, Black Torrington, in north Devon. At that time he was only one year old, and the record presents the small domestic world from which he would later leave for military service. His parents’ eventual address at Cheriton Fitzpaine, near Crediton, would become the family home recorded by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission after his death.
Chilcott had at least one brother, F. G. Chilcott. No marriage or children are recorded for Charles, and his death at the age of 20 meant that his adult life was largely defined by his early RAF service. His story is therefore remembered through his parents, his brother, his squadron, and the grave in Gosport where he lies buried.
Military Service
Chilcott enlisted as a civilian for the Royal Air Force between 1938 and 1940. He joined as an aircraft hand, a junior ground-trade role that provided the RAF with trained manpower for the practical work of servicing and supporting air operations. He later held the rank of Leading Aircraftman, a rank that recognised experience and responsibility beyond that of an ordinary aircraftman.
His service number was 654152, and his wartime unit was 930 Balloon Squadron, based at RAF Titchfield in Hampshire. The squadron was part of Balloon Command, the RAF organisation responsible for Britain’s barrage-balloon defences. These units were an important, if often overlooked, part of the country’s air-defence system during the Battle of Britain and the Blitz. [3][4]
Barrage balloons were large balloons moored to the ground by strong steel cables. Positioned around ports, towns, factories, naval bases, and other vital sites, they were intended to prevent hostile aircraft from attacking at low level. Their cables could damage or destroy aircraft that struck them, while the balloons also forced attackers to fly higher, where anti-aircraft guns and RAF fighters had a better chance of engaging them. [5][3]
Unit Context at Time of Death
During the summer of 1940, Balloon Command formed part of Britain’s wider “anti-aircraft umbrella”. By July, it operated 1,466 balloons across the country, including major concentrations around London and other vulnerable areas. The balloons were particularly effective against low-level raiders and dive-bombers, which could otherwise attack with greater accuracy and evade some conventional defences. [3]
RAF Titchfield controlled several balloon squadrons protecting the Hampshire coast and nearby strategic targets. Contemporary local accounts identify 930 Squadron as responsible for 40 land-based and 10 waterborne balloons covering Southampton, while nearby 932 and 933 Squadrons covered Portsmouth and Gosport respectively. The references to Chilcott’s 930 Squadron and the St Vincent site should therefore be understood within the closely coordinated network of balloon defences operating across the Solent area. [4][6]
The ports and naval facilities around Portsmouth, Gosport, Southampton, and the Solent were important targets. Portsmouth was the home of a major Royal Navy base, while Southampton supported docks, shipping, aircraft manufacture, and other war industries. Balloon crews were required to maintain their sites continuously, operate winches and cables, manage the balloons in difficult weather, and remain at their posts despite the growing danger of German attack.
Barrage balloons compelled low-flying attackers to climb, reducing bombing accuracy and exposing them to fighters and anti-aircraft guns.
Circumstances of Death
On 12 August 1940, the Luftwaffe launched major daylight operations against targets in southern England, during the early phase of the Battle of Britain. At Gosport, St Vincent’s Sports Ground on Forton Road contained a barrage-balloon site beside the railway line between Gosport and Fareham. The railway may have provided German aircrew with a conspicuous navigational feature leading directly towards the site. [7]
Chilcott was killed on the ground when the site was attacked in an enemy air raid. The family report identifies the location as St Vincent’s Sports Ground, and contemporary local research attributes the attack to aircraft of I/StG 3, a Luftwaffe dive-bomber unit. He was one of a group of RAF personnel killed in the attack, alongside two civilian groundsmen who had sought shelter with the airmen. [7]
The raid demonstrates the particular vulnerability of balloon crews. Their task was defensive and largely static: the balloons, winches, cables, and sites were visible parts of the local landscape, while the men responsible for them had limited protection when a direct air attack arrived. Although they were not fighter pilots, their service placed them in the front line of Britain’s air defence.
Burial and Commemoration
Charles Henry Chilcott was buried in Ann’s Hill Road Cemetery, Gosport, in Plot 188, Grave 27. His burial close to the place of his death gives his story a strong local connection to Hampshire as well as to his Devon family. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records him as Leading Aircraftman Charles Henry Chilcott, Royal Air Force, 930 Balloon Squadron, who died on 12 August 1940. [2][1]
His grave is one element of a wider local remembrance of the Gosport raid. A commemorative plaque at the entrance to St Vincent’s Sports Ground records the loss of life among the balloon-site personnel on 12 August 1940. Although the ground itself is now privately owned, the memorial ensures that the airmen and civilians killed there remain part of Gosport’s wartime history. [7]
For his parents at Cheriton Fitzpaine and for his brother, the grave at Gosport became the permanent place of mourning. It marked the loss of a young man who had left Devon for RAF service but died while protecting the home front from attack.
Legacy
Charles Henry Chilcott’s life was brief, but his service illustrates a vital aspect of Britain’s wartime defence that is sometimes overshadowed by the story of Fighter Command. As a Leading Aircraftman in a balloon squadron, he helped form part of the physical barrier that protected naval centres, ports, industrial sites, and civilian communities from low-level attack.
His death at St Vincent’s Sports Ground came at a critical moment in the Battle of Britain. The airmen at the site were not distant from the fighting: the Luftwaffe’s bombs brought the battle directly to their ground station. In that sense, Chilcott’s sacrifice belongs both to the military history of Balloon Command and to the civilian history of Gosport under air attack.
Remembering Charles Chilcott restores the person behind a service number: a Devon-born son, brother, and young RAF airman whose work with the barrage-balloon defences placed him in danger on the home front. His grave, the Gosport memorial plaque, and the CWGC record preserve his name and the circumstances of his loss.
Sources and Further Reading
- Commonwealth War Graves Commission: Leading Aircraftman Charles Henry Chilcott
- Gosport (Ann’s Hill) Cemetery | Commonwealth War Graves Commission
- RAF Museum: Balloon Command and the Battle of Britain
- Royal Air Forces Association: Barrage Balloons in the Second World War
- The Gosport Barrage Balloon Site Raid, 12 August 1940
- RAF Titchfield and the Hampshire Balloon Squadrons
Sources
[1] The Gosport tragedy of 933 Barrage Balloon Squadron – Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/homefronthistory/posts/6572117426178300/
[2] Royal Air Force War Grave Photos for Reference. | Page 62 – WW2Talk https://ww2talk.com/index.php?threads/royal-air-force-war-grave-photos-for-reference.33488/page-62
[3] Other Commands | History of the Battle of Britain https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/online-exhibitions/history-of-the-battle-of-britain/other-commands/
[4] The Balloon Goes Up! https://www.solentsky.org/post/the-balloon-goes-up
[5] Barrage Balloons in the Second World War https://rafa.org.uk/blog/2020/10/13/barrage-balloons-in-the-second-world-war/
[6] RAF Titchfield: History of the Barrage Balloon Command https://nfhwa.org/raf-titchfield-history-barrage-balloon-command/
[7] The Tragedy of 933 Barrage Balloon Squadron at Gosport … http://www.bbrclub.org/Tragic%20Loss%20of%20Life%20at%20933%20Barrage%20Balloon%20Squadron%20at%20Gosport%2012th%20August%201940.htm
[8] Individual-Report-for-Charles-Henry-Chilcott.pdf https://ppl-ai-file-upload.s3.amazonaws.com/web/direct-files/attachments/141549598/a564fbfa-dda9-45ae-a76d-82948685da4f/Individual-Report-for-Charles-Henry-Chilcott.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=ASIA2F3EMEYET4YPYQLP&Signature=AUE7KtVIAXHrOO6kQ%2FeE9SHSJWo%3D&x-amz-security-token=IQoJb3JpZ2luX2VjEO7%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2FwEaCXVzLWVhc3QtMSJHMEUCIQDHa3fFiISe6eFdZ6NF1uOWd2pfSlh80GsjB%2B4yYL1cyQIgB4JnvBh5%2BG39NrYWm3CPmFShjzySE4ut%2FPz0umhJP%2Bwq%2FAQItv%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2FARABGgw2OTk3NTMzMDk3MDUiDGUMqLKGosSy%2FMZ3iCrQBOVFFA4nomGN1IMhecFbCbiNgVws9wgsE6WZ6oyNY%2Bcc3Nu9SjyJ2uyPpNe4%2FKhMOpFewp48d%2B%2Bbc4YRGEHxI0LBE7iW1FFk40ncqIhiajgGiBGK7qpjsBT332U2qwXpFKNDpQxujVTYjtAPqda4yYSS4sq6%2Bf16TrPXOUKvFOtsGPL7l4lLBAZ6ur08yuJicLQNWet7bWhyStTwgWMBtrLspeB9KTCddwudpNVGw7Y67QmOnPNu8fsuzIquBrA39tWcQl1iTYl4%2FVZfjOwmiTw5%2BVL1iHDhxU9tY8dF2ZeQuKCzRIbZ5QnHF9irAIiJDFk8osIinW5L3SYoADYpjg8sYKYY1FrsUbxYYqDsZ2Yn%2FLZnV9o%2BOx90uBORNll9yGIKlTrHZmEPuzLByipy0OLg0JVJ9ikgPkWtiAL961tW%2FX%2BOPneSmybn%2BIL4%2F488L3KjvZlvhk1fwvGW%2Br3bUtry1vJxEzqlSJ6OPGOXkRP5R3G2%2Bb%2F2nTz3Ko7wKD19eGwsUOx3sdSkNIdbCVP2%2BpRl7l%2FPlwXEsXPOckumxM91xtKWPsYXnkdaA2ZmBLxfVtKSxx9ovScVMv1%2B6blokMcLTKJxPuCt%2BasXjhRNKxjBIiajJ7fIrysGR6xcQBNuQGw4sL5njrc4rwJ4t4aPtl4gFqQKoE1FLb3NNTAqI8a9SUY7qlaO1EPw%2B70c16C%2F3lmxmyxQUe8zy5MnKvpgxUVdv%2B1K6BDF7v8foVSCVMZ77c4B9r%2FGjtQeNRhuwePZgcpP%2Foh0YOui2ow6ARxzreUw5sDs0wY6mAHbTXGbe%2B%2FuSH043v3ziL%2FNbLooiDm9mweAcghyTjWMnBBKe7IUPvUkfngsKcTlti1AZWi6PkXwJDw3TLwLHLfior1OuS%2BnXNLgFrHM4iGC9J%2Fayi5njbc%2FIDUvrlZ%2FXdx1yeB1JvY7TjuuvojiyeiNDcub1aMBvH6ASkvURgcxtPpiY881Ip%2BgH0yPiM76lTwwuvDVtO0npQ%3D%3D&Expires=1786456419
[9] Royal Air Force https://www.facebook.com/royalairforce/posts/did-you-know-that-before-the-raf-employed-sophisticated-early-warning-and-air-de/970090498486766/
[10] Rifleman Thomas Henry Chilcott | War Casualty Details 591040 https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/591040/thomas-henry-chilcott/
[11] People index – surnames C – airhistory.org.uk http://www.airhistory.org.uk/rfc/people_indexC.html
[12] RAF Balloon Command https://www.thesecondworldwar.org/western-front-1939-1940/battle-of-britain-1/the-raf-1/balloon-command
[13] [PDF] Committed – National Society Sons of the American Revolution https://www.sar.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/LXXXVI-NO-2_FALL-1991.pdf
[14] Barrage Balloons – the nation’s defender – 1939 Register https://www.findmypast.com/1939register/barrage-balloons
[15] Life story: Charles Henry Chilcott | Lives of the First World War https://livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/lifestory/6181233
[16] Barrage Balloon Organisations of the Royal Auxiliary Air … https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrage_Balloon_Organisations_of_the_Royal_Auxiliary_Air_Force
