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Robert Henry Chandless was born in 1880 in Germantown, Philadelphia to Henry and Anna. Henry was born in London in 1853 and arrived in New York on April 28, 1876 onboard the S.S. Periere. He married Anna Jungkurth, probably in 1878. According to his son's passport applications, he spent much of his life in New York.

Robert Chandless married Effie M. Ragsdale after May 2, 1910 and before July 1912. Effie (born 1887) was the daughter of James W. Ragsdale, American Consul in Tientsin. Robert and Effie's daughter Florence was born July 20, 1912 in Tientsin, China. Florence later married John Stenhouse in Tientsin on October 31, 1934.

Robert arrived in Shanghai from New York in 1903 to join the British import-export firm of Poole Lauder. He later went to Tientsin to join a different firm, which then failed in 1906. The following year he joined with Mr. Batonieff, a Russian, and established the firm of Chandless Batonieff & Co. After Mr. Batonieff's death, the firm became Chandless & Co. which continued to do business under that name until 1939.

In the late 1930s Robert and his wife gave as their U.S. address on passenger lists, the residence of his brother-in-law as their destination: Colonel Earl J. Ragsdale, Curran Terrace, Norristown, PA. In the mid to late 1940s, Robert was living in Pasadena. He died in San Francisco on July 9, 1951. His wife Effie died February 24, 1980 in Mercer Island, Washington.