Born in Bale about 1895 the only son of Abel and Emily (nee Clarke). Although Abel and Emily were married in 1892 their first child – Sidney was born relatively late. Most people at this time had their children quite quickly after marriage, sometimes even one just before!

Sidney had three sisters – Edith born 1897, Bridget born 1902 and Rose Annie born 1907. At the time of the 1911 census they are all living in five rooms ‘near the Pit’ in Sharrington. Abel is working as a farm labourer, along with Sidney. There are two lodgers in the household Rosetta and Thomas Wright (siblings) she is a domestic servant and he is working as a general labourer at Melton Constable Railway station.

Enlisting in Norwich Private 20569 was to die whilst on board the troop ship ‘Royal Edward’ when it was steaming towards Mudros with reinforcements for the Gallipoli campaign. Although initially number 17789 in the Norfolk Regiment Sidney was later moved to the Essex Regiment, 1^st Battalion as many of his colleagues were to fill in depleted regiments.

The ‘Royal Edward’ was originally named the ‘Cairo’ having been built for the Egyptian Mail Steamship Co. She was bought in 1910 by a Canadian company and was used on two routes around the east coast of Canada.

At the start of WW1 she was used to bring Canadian troops to Britain and was then used to hold ‘enemy aliens’ off Southend.

At the end of July 1915 she was again being used as a troop ship and was taking soldiers to reinforce in Gallipoli. Commanded by P.M.Watton of the Royal Naval Reserve the soldiers had a rough trip down to Gibraltar but once in the Mediterranean conditions improved and the men were able to relax.

On the 11^th August 1915 the ship arrived in Alexandria and sailed again for Gallipoli on the 12^th. Meanwhile the German submarine U14 Commanded by Oberleutnant zur See Heino von Heimburg was heading out to the shipping route between Alexandria and the Dardanelles from Bodrum, Turkey. (Amazingly this submarine had been transported over land from Bremen in Northern Germany to the Mediterranean).

On the 13^th August the submarine first saw the ‘Soudan’ a British hospital ship which they ignored but it was being followed by the unescorted ‘Royal Edward’. This was six miles west of Kandeliusa in the Aegean Sea. With one torpedo to the stern the ‘Royal Edward’ was sunk within minutes leaving wreckage and men on the sea surface. It was considered that the high losses of life was probably due to the men just having had a lifeboat drill and were below decks re-stowing their kit. Luckily the U boat did not stay around to harass the rescue effort as it had technical problems. So survivors were picked up by the ‘Soudan’, two French destroyers and some trawlers. Of the 1,586 troops and crew there were less than 500 survivors. (Accounts of the loss of life do vary).

The History of the Norfolk Regiment records that the loss of 300 men this day was from the best draft to leave Felixstowe and were probably drafts from 23^rd June – 100 and 24^th July – 200. The account of those involved were to vary too with “The Times” reporting the Essex Regiment loosing 174 but 172 of these were from the Norfolk’s (3^rd Special Reserve) based at Felixstowe. Only 18 of the 300 Norfolk men were saved. To partly replace this loss another 150 men were sent to the Essex Regiment on 29^th September 1915.

What happened to the survivors of the Royal Edward? A first-hand account, written by one such survivor to his mother, reports that the ‘Soudan’ landed the men in Alexandria on the 15^th August. They were then checked for fitness, clothed and kitted out ready to go on a ship three days later for Gallipoli. Some were returned to England and the medics were sent to Port Said to work in a convalescent hospital.

The Cape Helles monument in Turkey has names of the men drowned by the torpedoing of the Royal Edward, along with nearly 21,000 names of those either killed in Gallipoli or lost at sea.

The sinking of the ‘Royal Edward’ showed how vulnerable both troop ships and merchant shipping were to attack. “The Times” newspaper was to report how astounded it was that until then such a similar disaster had not occurred. August 1915 was the largest loss of shipping by U boat strikes encountered by the allies. Over the next two years the number of strikes was to double each year meaning the allies had to take more effective measures to give more protection to our shipping. It made sense to move around in convoy and with advances in technology, such as sonar, and attacks from the sky it was made more difficult for the German U boats to successfully strike.