Name
Sidney Arthur Camfield
1894
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
22/07/1917
23
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Corporal
16801
Bedfordshire Regiment
8th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
PHILOSOPHE BRITISH CEMETERY, MAZINGARBE
Plot 1, Row T, Grave 44
France
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Knebworth Village Memorial, Knebworth (old), St. Martin’s Church Memorial, Knebworth (New), St. Martin’s Church Roll of Honour, Knebworth (New), St. Martin’s Church Framed Memorial, Knebworth (New), Codicote Village Memorial, Peace Memorial Hall, Codicote
Pre War
Sidney was born in Codicote, Herts in 1894, the son of William John and Mary Camfield and one of seven children.
On the 1901 Census the family were living at The Node Lodge, Codicote where his father was working as a Gardener (Domestic). His father died in 1903 and on the 1911 Census Sidney was living with his widowed mother and four brothers at New Wood Cottages, Rabley Heath, Welwyn, Herts and working as a Domestic Houseboy.
Before enlistment, Sidney was employed by Mr C A Cain of "The Node" in Codicote.
Wartime Service
Sidney enlisted at Hertford and joined the Bedfordshire Regiment on 18 September 1914.
He arrived in France on the 30 August 1915 and served with the 8th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment continuously on the Western Front. On the night of the 21/22 July 1917 the Battalion suffered one casualty, which was Sidney. An article published on 18 August 1917 in the Hertfordshire Express reported that he was killed by machine gun fire. He died instantaneously, having been shot through the head while returning from the trenches. He had previously been wounded from gun shots to the hand and thigh.
Sidney's captain wrote to his mother expressing his sorrow and described how he was "carried by his comrades to the rear after having been killed, and buried by the chaplain in a little military cemetery behind the lines." now known as the Philosophe British Cemetery, Mazingarbe, France.
Additional Information
At the time of Sidney's death three of his brothers were in France and one was in the Metropolitan Police Force. His mother received a war gratuity of £13.10s and pay owing of £6 2s 7d. She also received a pension of 5 shillings a week.
Acknowledgments
Derry Warners, Brenda Palmer
Brenda Palmer, Paul Johnson, June Colegrove, Roll-of-Honour.com
