CHAMBERS, RICHARD H Sept 28, 1945 age 21 DNB Manila

RICHARD HARRIS CHAMBERS  b. 1924 China d. Sept 28, 1945 Died Non Battle Manila

2^nd Lt O-1061648 Army Air Corps Hdg Base 10^th US Air Forces Western Pacific

Buried Manila American Cemetery, Philippines

Rev R.E. Chambers in China

Parents: Rev. Dr. Robert Edward & Christine (Cottage)

Sibling: Ralph, Christine, Lois; step siblings: Robert E. Jr, Wm W., Muriel, Henry M.

Chambers has a story worthy of a movie script. His parents were Southern Baptist missionaries in China. The Rev, born 1870 in Virginia, went with his first wife, Julia Trainham  in the 1890’s. They had 4 children when Julia returned to Pennsylvania in 1916 and died of breast cancer 1917. Then about 1918 he married  the 15 years younger Christine Cottage. She left Texas 1914 also to be a missionary in China in 1914. At that time Americans abroad has to file various documents with the local US consul; especially useful are attestations of birth abroad by children of US citizens. Robert’s oldest son worked in china for Tobacco Products Corp, an American company. He subsequently moved quite a bit around the States.

In the 1920’s the Rev and Christine had 3 children. Richard was born in 1924. Their father died in 1924 in China of pneumonia. His body was later disinterred for burial in Virginia. Christine and her children stayed on in China; she taught English at the University of Shanghai.

At the end of the 1930’s their situation became tenuous with the invasion of China by Japan. The summer of 1937 Richard was at YMCA camp 400 miles from Shanghai when the camp was closed due to pending war. His mother and sisters unable to meet him at a designated rendezvous at Kuling as trains were jammed with Chinese troops. Richard was a slight, scholarly boy of 13. The American consul at Tsingtao put him on the ship Phyllis Soto where he paid one dollar to gain status as a passenger. Hardly did they get out of port before Richard was in the galley peeling potatoes; partly this was that he didn’t want to be alienated from the crew.

The ship first hit a typhoon soon after leaving port and had to dock in Yokohama. Amazingly Richard’s mother and sisters were also on a ship at Yokohama at the same time. But they had no way of knowing the other’s presence.

The ship left Japan only to encounter another typhoon. It emerged with some 8 feet of water in a hold resulting in a distress call before it got to Hawaii. It towed to port. The crew considered Richard to be a jinx on their voyage. Richard continued to Los Angeles on a different ship.

High School 1941

Meanwhile his mother was able to establish Richard’s whereabouts through the state Dept and other agencies; she contacted family friends to meet him in Los Angeles. There he finally had a letter from his mother and would be reunited with her in Detroit, where Robert Jr. lived.

He attended Redford. His mother was busy including giving a lecture on Feb 7, 1938 at the Redford Woman’s Club, the international relations division. The chairperson of the group was Mrs. Fred Dye, who with her husband lived 4 houses away from my Detroit home. It continues to be surprising how little we know of the many people crossing in and out of our lives; in hindsight needed to be more open to the lives of others.

Christine went back to china in 1937. For a time he lived with his stepbrothers family at 16724; Robert was now a credit manager for a finance company. Richard graduated Redford in 1941 then attended University of Michigan. His mother had returned and sister Christine married in 1942 and lived in Ann Arbor also.

After his life’s experiences it is no surprise he joined the Detroit Air Corp Nov 2, 1942. He was 5’7” and 142 lbs. He served in the southwest Pacific, Headquarters Base X as a coast artillery radar officer. He died in an airplane crash.