Name
Sidney Benjamin Batt
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
17/10/1918
21
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
3535
The Buffs (East Kent Regiment)
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
BRANCOURT-LE-GRAND MILITARY CEMETERY
B. 5.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
St Mary the Virgin Church, Therfield, Non-conformist Chapel, Therfield
Pre War
Born 1898 in Therfield son of Alfred Frank and Esther (Lacey) Batt of Georges Yard, Therfield.
1901 Census details
The family was living at Georges Yard, Therfield.
Father Alfred Frank was a self employed tailor and mother was Esther. Their children were Frank 7, Herbert 6, Horace 4, Sidney 3 and Arthur, 1.
1911 census details
They were still living at the same address and Percy 9, Dorothy 6 and Alec 3, had arrived. Frank and Horace were elsewhere and Herbert was an apprentice to his father in tailoring. Sidney was at school aged 13.
Wartime Service
Sidney enlisted in London in the 1st Battalion Buffs (East Kent Regiment) which was a regular battalion and was put into the 16th Brigade of the 6th Division with a number G/3535.
He entered the theatre of war in France on 31st August 1915. His family would have received the 1915 star and the war and victory medals (as indicated in the Medal rolls index).
His division was engaged in all the major battles;
1915 Hooge,Belgium in August.
1916 The Somme. Flers-Courcelette, Morval and Lesboeufs in September and Transloy Ridge, October.
1917 The Battle of Cambrai. Nov.-Dec.
1918 More battles of the Somme and Lys then the Advance to Victory with the battles of the Hindenburg Line, Sept. to early Oct. and the final battle of the Selle which began on 17th October on which day Sidney was killed. The poor young man was just 21 and had seen so much action in the service of his country only to be killed less than a month before war ended.
Seeking the war diary details, the National Army Museum informed us that the month of October was missing from their archives so we will never know exactly where Sydney was killed.
He is buried in Brancourt-le Grand Military Cemetery, Aisne, France, in row B, grave 5.
Additional Information
Sidney is also commemorated on the family headstone in Therfield (St. Mary) Churchyard. His part of the inscription reads:
ALSO OF SIDNEY B BATT [THE BUFFS. EAST KENT REGT.] SON OF FRANK & ESTHER BATT.
AND GRANDSON OF THE ABOVE [Susan Anderson]
WHO WAS KILLED IN ACTION IN FRANCE OCT. 17TH 1918. AGED 21 YEARS
BURIED IN THE BRITISH CEMETERY AT BRANCOURT LE GRAND
GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN THAN THIS THAT HE LAID DOWN HIS LIFE FOR HIS FRIENDS.
Acknowledgments
Malcolm Lennox, Jean Handley
