Name
Sidney Walter Clark
1899
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
13/04/1918
19
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
33553
York and Lancaster Regiment
13th (1st Barnsley) Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
PLOEGSTEERT MEMORIAL
Panel 8.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Hoddesdon and Rye Park Town Memorial, Hoddesdon, St Catherine and St Paul’s Church Memorial, Hoddesdon
Pre War
Sidney Walter Clark was born in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, in 1899, son of Alfred Clark a Labourer and Elizabeth Clark (nee Thurgill). One of their five children. His parents married on 27th October 1894, in Hoddesdon, Herts.
1901 Census records Sidney aged 2, living with his Parents, at Lynch Lodge, Hoddesdon, Herts. His elder brother Robert (6) was recorded as living with his widowed Grandmother Mary Thurgill, in Roman Street, Hoddesdon, Herts, on the night of the Census.
1911 Census records Sidney aged 12, his brother Robert (16) and sister May (8), living with his widowed Grandmother Mary Thurgill, at 3 Roman Street, Hoddesdon, Herts. His parents, sisters Kathleen (6) and Daisy (3), are still living at Lynch Lodge, Conduit Street, Hoddesdon, Herts.
Wartime Service
Sidney travelled to the County Town of Hertford to enlist on 24th May 1916, he gave his age as 18 years, his occupation as a Munitions Worker at the Royal Gun Powder Factory, Enfield, Middx. He was posted to the Army Reserve the following day 25th. Mobilised for war service on 15th January 1917, posted to the 25th Training Reserve Battalion at Dovercourt, Essex, on 5th June 1917.
On completion of his training; he was posted to the 17th Battalion, Yorks and Lancaster Regiment and issued with the service No. 33553, and sent to the Western Front, joining the 12th Battalion, in the field on 22nd September 1917. He was admitted to No. 42 Casualty Clearing Station on 1st October 1917, with Gas Shell poisoning, returning back to England to recover on 1st November 1917, on his recovery he returned to Base Camp at Etaples, France, on 19th December 1917, from there he was posted to the 13th Battalion, arriving in the field on 13th February 1918. Sidney was presumed Killed in Action on 13th April 1918, aged 19, during the Battle of Hazebrouck, where the Battalion took heavy casualties. (Battle of Hazebrouck 12th – 15th April 1918).
He has no known grave; he is commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial in Belgium to the missing. Panel 8.
Additional Information
His mother Elizabeth received a Dependents Pension of 7/- a week from 18th March 1919.
His effects of £10-04-00 pay owing and his war gratuity of £6-10-00, went to his Father Alfred.
Acknowledgments
Stuart Osborne
Malcolm Lennox
