Name
Sidney Albert Element
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
24/04/1918
19
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
G/89489
Duke of Cambridge’s Own (Middlesex Regiment)
2nd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
CRUCIFIX CORNER CEMETERY, VILLERS-BRETONNEUX
IX. C. 16.
France
UK & Other Memorials
Croxley Green Village Memorial, Croxley Green
All Saints' Church Shrine, Croxley Green
John Dickinson & Co Memorial, Croxley Green
Rickmansworth Urban District Memorial
Pre War
Sidney’s birth was registered in the Watford district in 1899.
He was 11 at the time of the 1911 census which recorded that he was born in Croxley Green. He would have been only just 19 when he died. Sidney was the eldest son of Herbert and Eliza Element. They kept a greengrocer’s and confectioner’s shop and lived at 22 New Road. Sidney was a grocer’s assistant.
His cousin, Walter, was also killed. The army paid his father £6 7s 2d in August 1919, including a war gratuity of £5.
Recorded as enlisting in Watford.
Wartime Service
Sidney attested on 1 May 1917 and recorded his age as 18 years and 8 days. He joined the BEF in France on 2 April 1918 and was recorded as missing on 24 April 1918.
During the night of 23rd-24th April 1918 the battalion moved up into the front line on the Villers-Bretonneux – Lamottee road, just east of the cemetery, east of Villers Bretonneux. At 3.45am the Germans opened an intense artillery and trench-mortar bombardment together with a lachrymatory-gas barrage causing considerable casualties. After this intense bombardment the enemy infantry and tanks attacked east and south-east of Villers Bretonneux, which was captured after most severe fighting. Nonetheless, by the end of April, the German Spring Offensive was halted in the vicinity of Villers-Bretonneux, east of Amiens.
Additional Information
Probably cousin of Private Walter Element also of Croxley Green who was killed in action on 18 Aug 1916 and is also commemorated on this memorial.
Acknowledgments
Malcolm Lennox, Tanya Britton, Brian Thomson Croxley Green in the First World War Rickmansworth Historical Society 2014
