Name
Sidney Frank Butlin
1890
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
25/08/1918
28
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
204191
Bedfordshire Regiment
2nd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
VALENCIENNES (ST. ROCH) COMMUNAL CEMETERY
V. E. 28.
France
Headstone Inscription
"HE DIED FOR LIBERTY AND HONOUR"
UK & Other Memorials
St Matthew’s Church Memorial, Oxhey
Pre War
Sidney Frank Butlin, born in Stoke Newington, Middlesex on 19th June 1890, son of Arthur William Butlin an Accountant for the Railway and Charlotte Annie Butlin (nee Simmons). He was the youngest of 7 children, 2 of which died in infancy. Baptised on the 11th July 1890, in the Parish of North Hackney, London, with his sister May Violet Butlin, they were living at 17 Walford Road, Stoke Newington at the time.
1891 Census records Sidney aged 9 months living with his parents, brothers, Arthur 13, Stanley 11, Reginald 9, Max 5 and sister May 3, at 17 Walford Road, Stock Newington/Hackney. The family also had a live in Domestic Servant. It also records his father as a Railway Accountant and a Baritone Vocalist.
The 1901 Census records the family now living at 34 Tynemouth Road, Tottenham, Sidney is at school, his brothers, Arthur and Reginald are still living at home.
By 1911 Arthur and Charlotte were living at 44 Upper Paddock Road, Oxhey, Watford. All their children except Sidney, aged 20, and his older brother Max, aged 25, a Bank Clark, had left home. Sidney, like his father, was a railway accountant.
Wartime Service
Sidney enlisted in Westminster, London and posted to the City of London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers) with the service No’s. 2546 & 200723, he was later Transferred to the Bedfordshire Regiment with the service No. 204191. His medal index card indicates he landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula on 30th August 1915, with the City of London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers). Evacuated back to Egypt in January 1916. It is not known when Sidney was transferred to the Bedfordshire Regiment.
In August 1918, while serving with “D” Company, 2nd Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment in the Albert area of France, Sidney was taken prisoner on 6th August 1918, during a German assault on the Bedford’s front line trenches, the Germans took a number of men prisoner, during this assault, Sidney received a Gun Shoot Wound to his upper thigh. He died of his wounds on 25th August 1918, while a Prisoner of War and is buried in the Valenciennes Communal Cemetery German Extension, German Plot No. 1851. After the war, the German extension to the Cemetery was closed. Sidney was reburied in CWGC section of the Valenciennes (St Roch) Communal Cemetery. The Valenciennes area of France was under the control of the Germans for most of the war, it was cleared by the Canadian’s at the beginning of November 1918.
He is commemorated on the St Matthew’s Church Memorial, Oxhey. After the war, his parents moved to ‘Bridge Cottage’, Watford Heath, Watford, Herts.
Additional Information
The value of his effects were £24-1s-2d, which went to his mother. His father, Mr A. W. Butlin of Bridge Co, Watford Heath, Watford, Herts. ordered his headstone inscription: "HE DIED FOR LIBERTY AND HONOUR" Prisoner of War information obtained from to Red Cross POW records. Son of Arthur William and Charlotte Annie Butlin, of "Bridge Cot," Watford Heath, Watford, Herts. Information provided with kind permission of Bushey First World War Commemoration Project – Please visit www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk.
Acknowledgments
Stuart Osborne
Dianne Payne - www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk, Jonty Wild
