For some reason I'd only briefly referenced Sydney Arthur Brooks on the now defunct Chailey 1914-1918 website; an oversight I am now rectifying.
Sydney was born in Fletching, Sussex in late 1897 or early 1898. He appears on the 1901 census as a three-year old and we know from GRO records that his birth was registered at Uckfield in the first quarter of 1898.
For some reason, Sydney was not noted in the Chailey Parish magazine but we certainly know that he joined the 12th Royal Sussex Regiment at the same time as his brother, William Jared Brooks, and that he was one of the many Southdown battalion men killed in action on the 30th June 1916. William and Sydney joined the regiment on the 11th November 1914 and both arrived in France on 4th March 1916.
Sydney, recorded as Sidney Brookes on his medal index card, has no known grave and is commemorated by name on the Loos Memorial.
The image at the top of this page is courtesy Simon Stevens of Fletching and is reproduced from the notebook kept by John Oldaker of Newick School which Sydney and William attended between 1905 and 1911. The other image is taken from the Loos Memorial register entry, courtesy of CWGC.
No comments:
Post a Comment