Name
Sidney Alfred Wilshere (poss Wilshire)
1896
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
03/09/1916
20
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
23460
The Loyal North Lancashire Regiment
9th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier and Face 11 A.
France
Headstone Inscription
NA
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial, Holy Saviour Church War Memorial, Radcliffe Rd., Hitchin, St Mary's Church Roll of Honour (Book), Hitchin, St Faith’s Church Memorial, Walsworth
Pre War
Sidney Alfred Wilshere(*1) was born in 1896 in Hitchin and christened on 2 February 1896 in Holy Saviour Church, Hitchin. His parents were William John and Ada Emma Wilshere (née Moules) who had married in Hitchin on 22 April 1889.
In 1901 the family were living at Walsworth, nr Hitchin. Present were both parents: William (34) and Ada (31), with William and working as a labourer in chalk pits. Their children were: William Lenard(sic?) (9), Bertie (7), Sidney Alfred (5), Emma Ada (3) and Blanche Olive (1).
By 1911 the family had moved to 9 St Michaels Mount, Hitchin. Present were both parents, William now working as a carter for a lime and brick merchant. All the children listed above were present, Sidney was now 15 and working as a tan yard boy for a fellmongers, and Blanche Olive was now recorded as Olive Blanch. They had now been joined by Evelyn Minnie (8) and Ernest Edward (6). The census recorded they had been married for 21 years with 8 children, of whom 1 had died.
Officially recorded as born and enlisting in Hitchin.
Wartime Service
Sidney was initially in the Bedfordshire Regiment with the Regimental Number 25195. Later he was transferred to the 9th (Service) Battalion of the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment with the Number 23460. This Battalion was in the 74th Brigade of the 25th Division of II Corps in the Reserve Army.
Sidney has an entry in the National Roll of the Great War – these were normally placed by family members using what they knew and are not always 100% correct, this records that he had enlisted in January 1916 ([possibly conscripted) and after training was sent to France in April of that year. He took part in several minor engagements before he was killed on the Somme on 3 September 1916.
His death coincides with the Battle of Pozieres and his unit had been at Ovillers on the 28th August 1916 in the Somme Sector. The ground was covered by enormous shell-holes and there was not a single landmark for miles.
He has no known grave and is remembered on Pier/Face 11A of the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing in France.
Additional Information
After his death £3 7s 3d pay owing was authorised to go to his father, William, on 14 December 1916. Later, a war gratuity of £3 was authorised to be paid to him on 2 September 1919.
His pension cards record Ada Emma as his mother and as his dependant, living at 9 St Michael Mount, Hitchin. She was awarded a pension of 6s a week from 10 July 1917.
*1 Spellings in records vary, e.g. Wilshere, Wilshire and occasionally Alfred Sidney rather than Sidney Alfred.
Acknowledgments
Adrian Dunne, Cilla Dyson David C Baines, Jonty Wild
