L/Cpl 16485 Sydney Alexander Scott

• Age: 23
• From: Eastham, Cheshire
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 18th Btn
• K.I.A Saturday 8th July 1916
• Commemorated at: Thiepval Memorial
  Panel Ref: P&F1D8B &8 C.

Sidney Alexander Scott was born in Eastham, Cheshire, in the June quarter of 1893, to Alexander Francis Scott and Mahala (née Denny), both born in Suffolk, and married there in 1877, the marriage registered in Hartismere nr Diss.   

They had five children born in Suffolk:  Alfred, Gertrude, Ernest, Eva, and Arthur.  The family moved to the Wirral in 1886-9, where four more children were born:  Walter, Harold, Sydney, and Edwin. Sidney was baptised with his brother Edwin Albert on 30th August 1896 in Hooton, Cheshire.  His father was a domestic coachman. Prior to enlisting Sidney had been employed at Price's Candle Works. 

On the 23rd June 1897, when Sidney was three or four years old, his father died, aged 41, leaving Mahala with nine children, the youngest of which was under a year old. 

On the 1901 Census at Cropper’s Nook, Eastham his widowed mother, Mahala, is aged 48, born in Wetteringsett, Suffolk, and is living with five children in the household. Ernest 18 and Arthur 14 are domestic gardeners, Harold 10,  Sydney 7, and Edward(sic) 4. In the same street are Thomas and Annie Fullaway, who are friends or relatives. 

Sidney’s mother died in 1906, aged 51, when Sidney was aged 13.  

In 1911 Sidney, 18, and his brother Harold, 20, are boarding with Thomas Fullaway, his wife and father, at Cropper’s Nook, Chester Road, Eastham. Sydney is a domestic gardener, Harold is a postman. 

Sydney, as he signed his name, enlisted in Liverpool on 2nd September 1914, as Private 16485, No 2 Company, 18th (Pals) battalion, King’s (Liverpool) Regiment. His gives his occupation as mechanical engineer, and his age as 21 years and 4 months.  He is described as being 5’ 6 and a quarter inches tall, weighing 136 lbs, 37” chest, with brown hair and eyes.  He states he has served an apprenticeship, which has expired.  He gives his next of kin as his eldest brother Alfred Scott at Croppers Nook, Eastham.  Later, the name of his brother Ernest was added, at 54 Bedford Street, Crewe.   

After training locally, then at Belton Park in Lincolnshire, and finally at Larkhill Camp on Salisbury Plain, Sidney shipped to France with his battalion, disembarking at Boulogne on 7th November 1915.   In December the battalion is sent to Hebuterne, on the Somme front, and in the new year the Pals battalions take up position in the south of the Somme line near Carnoy. He received specialist training at 30th Divn. Grenade School from the 5th March – 7th April 1916. For the ‘Big Push’, the 18th Bn returns to the front line, in trenches at Maricourt.  Sydney kept a clean conduct sheet throughout his service. He was appointed unpaid Lance Corporal on 2nd July 1916.   

He was killed in action on the 8th July, 1916.

Sidney’s death was announced in the Liverpool Echo on 18^th August 1916, under the list of Killed: 

“Private Sydney Scott (“Pals”), was twenty-three years of age, and resided at Cropper’s Nook, Eastham Village.”

Reported killed in the Liverpool Post 7th Sept 1916. 

King’s (Liverpools) – Scott, 16485, Lanc-Cpl. S. (Eastham); 

He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial. 

The Thiepval Memorial, the Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, bears the names of more than 72,000 officers and men of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died in the Somme sector before 20 March 1918 and have no known grave. Over 90% of those commemorated died between July and November 1916.

On 01st August 1932 the Prince of Wales and the President of France inaugurated the Thiepval Memorial in Picardy. The inscription reads: “Here are recorded the names of officers and men of the British Armies who fell on the Somme battlefields between July 1915 and March 1918 but to whom the fortune of war denied the known and honoured burial given to their comrades in death.”

Alfred was notified on 10th January 1917 that there were no personal effects to be sent.  Sydney earned his three medals, which Alfred signed for.  His memorial scroll was sent on 25th February 1921.  Sydney’s effects, army pay of £3 4s 2d was divided equally to his siblings, as was his £8 10s war gratuity. 

Alfred served in Egypt with the Army Service Corps;  Harold served in France with the Lancashire Fusiliers (Bantams), was wounded at the Somme and was discharged with a disability in 1917.

Sidney is commemorated on the following Memorials:

Eastham Civic Memorial,

Prices Candle Works in Bromborough Pool Village Factory and Duke Dock’s Wharf, (currently housed in St. Matthew’s Church, York Street, Bromborough).

The baptism records show his name as Sidney however he signed his attestation paper as "Sydney" and this has been used on the war memorials.