On this day in 1917, Private Sydney John Smith was killed.

Private 204545

SYDNEY JOHN SMITH

5th Platoon, B Company

15th Battalion, Hampshire Regiment

20th September 1917

Sydney John Smith was the only son of John and Jane Smith. His father was a miller at Manaton Mill and it was there that Sydney was privately baptised at home, a rather unusual occurrence and possibly related to some perinatal problems, on 5th February 1884. By the time of the 1901 census, taken on 31st March of that year, the Smith family was living in Kelly Bray and Sydney, aged 18, was working as a general labourer, while his father was a corn miller. In the 1911 census (2nd April 1911), the family is still in Kelly Bray and Sydney’s occupation is given as a sawyer.

At some point, Sydney enlisted in the army at Launceston and seemed to have moved regiments several times, from the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry to the Devonshire Regiment and, finally, to the Hampshire Regiment. It may be that these moves were in response to the need to make up regimental numbers in the field. We don’t know when he entered the France and Flanders Theatre of War but, from the War Diary of his battalion, we do know that just before the 20th September 1917, the 15th Hampshires were in Trench Street Tunnels, just outside of Zillebeke, to the south of Ypres. They were preparing for engagement on the 20th for what became known as The Battle of the Menin Road Ridge, the third British general attack of the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) in the First World War. The battle took place from 20th to 25th September 1917 and heralded a change in some infantry tactics, by adopting the "leap-frog" method of advance, when waves of infantry stopped once they reached their objective, then consolidated the ground, while other waves passed through the objective to attack the next one and the earlier waves became the tactical reserve. The Battalion War Diary gives a graphic description of the fighting Sydney John Smith and his comrades were engaged in and, at the end of the battle, the battalion casualties were enormous: 55 killed, 255 wounded and 34 missing believed killed. Sydney was one of the latter. His body was never recovered and he is one of the many commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial.

Sydney John Smith's Medal Card.

The Tyne Cot Memorial.

Sydney’s mother clung on to the fact that he was originally listed as ‘missing believed dead’ and correspondence archived with the Red Cross, and shown below, contains a record of the poignant letter Jane Smith wrote to the authorities trying to track down her son. All to no avail and Sydney was eventually listed as ‘killed’. Sydney is remembered on his parents’ headstone in Stoke Climsland graveyard.

All of Sydney Smith's possessions were left to his widowed mother.

Both Sydney's parents are buried in the graveyard in Stoke Climsland. Sydney is mentioned on the headstone.