Rank:
Rifleman / Private
Service No(s):
555087
Regiment:
London Regiment
Unit:
'D' Company 1st / 16th (County of London) Battalion (Queen's Westminster Rifles)
Returned:
No
Place of birth:
Islington - Middlesex
Occupation:
Clerk – Grain Merchant (1911 Census)
Date of death:
16/08/1917 Died in Belgium
Cause of death:
Killed in action
Grave or panel reference:
IV. C. 17
Name of father:
Christopher Edward Henry Eastman
Name of siblings:
Elizabeth Eastman; Gertrude Louise Eastman; Douglas Mackintosh (later Eastman, step-brother)
Name(s) of children:
Died:
Yes
Date of birth:
Place of enlistment:
Westminster - Middlesex
Event:
France and Belgium
Age at death:
26
Cemetery or memorial:
Hooge Crater Cemetery, Belgium
Other memorial:
Name of mother:
Elizabeth Eastman (née Cole)
Name of spouse:
Address:
9 Marriott Road (1911 Census)
Biography:
Christopher Henry Eastman was the third child of Christopher Edward Eastman and Elizabeth Eastman (née Cole), a house painter and a dressmaker. He was born in January 1891 and baptised that month at St Mary’s Church, Hornsey Rise.
The Eastmans lived at 135 Marlborough Road, and James had two older sisters, Elizabeth and Gertrude Louise, and a step-brother, Elizabeth’s son from her first marriage, Douglas Mackintosh. Elizabeth had been listed in the 1881 Census as Elizabeth Mackintosh, a widow, and her profession at the time was given as photographer.
Christopher senior died in 1895. By the 1911 Census, Christopher and his older sisters were living with their widowed mother at 9 Marriott Road, in the shadow of New Court Congregational Church in Stroud Green. Christopher was working as a clerk for a grain merchant.
We do not know when Christopher enlisted in the army, but he served as a Rifleman in the 1/16th (County of London) Battalion (Queen’s Westminster Rifles), which engaged in various actions on the Western Front. Between 16 and 18 August 1917, the battalion was in action during the Battle of Langemarck, the second Anglo-French general attack of the Third Battle of Ypres. The battle took place near Ypres in Belgian Flanders. Christopher was killed in action on the first day of the engagement, aged just 26 years old.
He is buried at Hooge Crater Cemetery and his headstone bears the inscription: “Dearer to memory than words can tell.”
Christopher’s probate was settled on 26 January 1918; he left effects to the value of £453 to his mother, Elizabeth.