Name
Sidney George Andrews
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
02/08/1917
24
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Corporal
265174
Hertfordshire Regiment
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star, British War and Victory Medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
VOORMEZEELE ENCLOSURES NO.1 AND NO.2
I. G. 25.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Royston Town War Memorial,
Hertfordshire Regimental Memorial, All Saints Church, Hertford
Pre War
His mother was Mrs Eliza Anne Andrews.
He was a blacksmith and was born and lived in Royston and was a Hertfordshire Territorial before the war joining them on the 18th March 1912 when he was 19 years and 8 months, his regimental number 1866.
He married Beatrice Martha Rebecca Chapman on the 18th December 1915, his wife had two children from her previous marriage, William James & Sarah Chapman.
Wartime Service
Sidney was posted overseas with the Battalion on 6th November 1914 and saw service all along the Western front.
He was admitted to No.100 Field Ambulance on 3rd February 1916 suffering with a sprained ankle. He remained in hospital until 19th February, when he re-joined his unit.
Sidney was again wounded on the 7th May 1917, this time with a gunshot wound to his hip. He was admitted to No.133 Field Ambulance and then transferred to No.3 Canadian Casualty Clearing Station, where he remained until the 12th May 1917, after which he re-joined his Battalion. As a result of his condition Sidney was granted leave from the 24th May to 24th June 1917, returning to each unit in time for the major Passchendaele offensive.
Sidney took part in the action at St. Juliaan on the 31st July 1917in which the Battalion suffered heavy casualties. On the 19th August 1917 the Battalion had returned to the front line, this time relieving the 17th Battalion, Notts & Derbys Regiment in the Klein Zillebeke area. During this time, it suffered 3 casualties, one of whom was killed. It is believed that this was Sidney Andrews.
Both his Army Service Record and the data held by the CWGC state date of death as 02/08/1917. His Graves Registration Report, Army Effects Register and Soldiers Died state he died on the 22/08/1917.
Additional Information
He may have been an Acting Lieutenant at the time of his death. After the war there was correspondence between the Imperial War Graves Commission and Mrs E A Andrews (his mother?) of 12 Mount Terrace, Royston, Herts.
Acknowledgments
Paul Johnson, Diana Stevens – Sidney’s sister Emily’s granddaughter, Jonty Wild, Diana Stevens
