Sidley One Name Study

An unlikely hero...interrupted My great grandfather George Thomas Sidley was a soldier in the Boer War. Soldier number 34309, Unit 53 Company (East Kent) 11th Battalion Imperial Yeomanry. Today 31 May is the anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Vereeniging which marked the end of the Second South African War or Boer War. It was signed in Pretoria on this day in 1902. See more at www.angloboerwar.com For many years there has been a tradition for a memorial service to be held, about this time, at the South Australian Boer War memorial in Adelaide, South Australia. This memorial was one of the first to be erected to honour Australians who died in the war and was unveiled on 6th June 1904 by Sir George Le Hunte, Governor of South Australia. 6th June was the anniversary of the battle of Graspan in  1901 and this skirmish in the former Orange Free State was the worst day South Australia was to experience in the war with the death of eight soldiers. The unvei...

An Unlikely Hero - part three Missed the first part of the story? Click here for blogs No 1 and No 2 .  When my great grandfather George Thomas Sidley signed an attestation (in NA WO128) on 25 February 1901, he indicated that at this time he was in the 2nd Middlesex Rifle Volunteers and wanted to join the Duke of Cambridge’s Own. He completed this form at 48 Duke Street and it has caused some confusion. The form clearly states 48 Duke Street but doesn’t say exactly where. The drill hall below is in Duke's Road, Holburn and there appears to be some doubt about a possible location in Duke Street off Oxford Street. I believe it more likely that recruiting would take place in the drill hall pictured below. The former London Middlesex Artists Rifle Volunteers drill hall   The 2nd Middlesex Rifle Volunteers had been in existence since about 1859 but when it came to the Boer War they did not take part, and I believe that these volunteers had to jo...

An Unlikely Hero - continued... My great grandfather George Thomas Sidley was born in Ealing, Middlesex, England on 4th March 1878. He was the son of George and Elizabeth (Jones) Sidley and was christened at St. Mary’s Church, Ealing, on 8th November 1878 by the Rev. Alfred Relton.  St Mary's Church, Ealing, Middlesex, England In the 1881 Census George and Elizabeth and family, including 3 year old George Thomas, were living with his maternal grandmother Charlotte (Powell) Sidley at No 7 Church Terrace, South Ealing and they were still there in 1888. Most of the men in the Sidley family were tradesmen of some sort – George Senior was bricklayer and his brother Benjamin was also one, although he later became a general builder. George Thomas was described as a carpenter when he married Louisa May Chapman on 16 May 1897 at St Peter’s Church, Hammersmith.  Their first child Florence Hilda was born just six months later on 22 November 1897, and by then the famil...

An Unlikely Hero My maternal great grandfather George Thomas Sidley died in Chichester on 3 August 1956. I met him many times when I was a child and my memories of him were of a quiet, small man who smoked a pipe and who had a bristly moustache which tickled when he kissed me. He always wore a waistcoat (sometimes decorated with ash from his pipe) and could waggle his ears without moving his face – an intriguing feat which always entertained me and my two brothers. He was overshadowed by my great grandmother, Louisa, his wife of 59 years.   She was a very strong woman – a martinet.   They didn’t converse much and he spent a lot of time at the Lamb pub on Steyne Street, Bognor Regis about 20 paces from their cottage.   It’s still there.   The Lamb Inn, Steyne Street, B ognor Regis, 2010 Family lore has it that, when George once went into hospital, Louisa pawned all of his clothes as she did not think he would come home. He did! BUT childhoo...