Francis Joseph was the son of Samuel Joseph Chadwick and his second wife Gertrude (née Whitworth).
His father Samuel was born in Ilkeston in 1868. Samuel married Mary Helena Haddican in 1891 at the Roman Catholic chapel, Ilkeston, but she died four years later in 1894 aged 25.
His mother Gertrude was born in 1873 in Nottingham, the daughter of Thomas and Mary Whitworth. In 1891 Gertrude was a teacher at the Convent of Notre Dame, St Giles, Northampton, while her widowed mother, who was working as a dressmaker, was living on Raleigh Street, Nottingham, with her unmarried sister, Ellen McCann.
Samuel and Gertrude were married in 1896 and had six children three of whom died in infancy or childhood. Their surviving children were Francis Joseph b. 1897, Thomas Whitworth b. 1901 and Mary Gertrude b. 1904 who were all born in Ilkeston. Two children who died young were probably Mary Gertrude b. 1898 d. 1899 and Mary Cecilia b. 1905 d. 1905.
Samuel, a brewery agent, and Gertrude, a certificated schoolmistress, together with their son Francis were living on Graham Street, Ilkeston, in 1901. Also in the household was Gertrude's mother, Mary Whitworth.
The family had moved to Nottingham Road, Ilkeston, by 1911. Samuel was now a wine and spirit dealer and a stout bottler while his wife was assisting in the business and Mary Whitworth was described as a 'housekeeper'. Also in the home on the night of the census were Samuel and Gertrude's two youngest children, Thomas and Mary, together with Mary Whitworth's sister, Ellen McMann, a paper bag maker, and a female general domestic servant. Francis (13) was a boarder/student at Ratcliffe College, Leicester.
The CWGC record gave Samuel and Gertrude's address as Field Road, Ilkeston, but on Samuel's retirement they moved to Skegness where they were recorded on the 1939 England & Wales Register.
Gertrude was killed on 27 July 1942 in an air raid on Skegness which destroyed their home, 'Stella Maris', Lumley Avenue. Samuel died in Stillington, Yorkshire, on 2 April the following year. (See 'Extra information.')