Sidney Butterfield was born in Hemel Hempstead on Monday, 8th April 1889 the sixth child of Frederick Butterfield and Mary Ann Bunyon. Frederick and Mary Ann had a large family of ten children who were: Frederick, George, Annie, Thomas, Charles, Sidney, Ellen, Lizzie, William and John. Thomas died in 1888 aged two and Ellen died in 1892 aged one.

When Sidney was born his family lived at the Masons Arms on Bury Road in Hemel Hempstead where his father was the pub landlord. In May 1897 when he was eight years old Sidney and his brother Charles moved from Piccott’s End Infants school to Boxmoor JMI. On October 7th, 1898 the school log recorded that Sidney was “reported to the Attendance Officer for truanting”. The reason for his truancy is not revealed but given the time of year it may have been the temptation to go ‘scrumping for apples’. Sidney stayed at Boxmoor for two more years before transferring to Hemel Hempstead Boys school where he completed his education in 1902.

By that time his family had moved to Cemetery Road and his father Frederick had given up running the Masons Arms and instead worked as a ‘General Carrier’. When he started work, Sidney joined his brother George as a ’Carman’ assisting their father. They were the equivalent to a modern day ‘courier’ transporting goods and packages for delivery around the Hemel area.

Sidney’s father Frederick died in 1912 aged fifty-six by which time all the children had left school and found employment and they lived with their mother Mary Ann at 89 Cotterells. Shortly after his father’s death, Sidney married his sweetheart Lily Room. Lily was from Dunstable, Bedfordshire but had come to Hemel Hempstead to work with John Dickinson & Co Limited in Apsley Mills. She and Sidney married in Hemel Hempstead late in 1912 and Lily would remarry a year after Sidney’s death to another Hemel man, Thomas Shakespeare.

On the outbreak of war Sidney joined the Colours, attesting at Hemel Hempstead in September 1914 and joining the Bedfordshire Regiment. He was posted to the newly formed 6th ‘Service’ Battalion and went to Aldershot to train with the 9th (Scottish) Division. He moved with the Battalion when it transferred to the 37th Division at Andover in March 1915 for further training on Salisbury Plains. Finally, the 6th Bedfordshires transferred into the 112th Brigade and on completion of training mobilised for overseas service in July 1915.

The Battalion embarked for France at Southampton aboard the SS Empress Queen and disembarked at Le Havre on the 30th July 1915. For the rest of that year Sidney saw no significant action and was mainly engaged with his comrades in general trench work, training and reconnaissance. All this changed in mid-1916 when Sidney fought in the Battle of Bazentin Ridge, part of the great Somme offensive. He then fought in the Battle of Pozières a month later before fighting in the last major offensive of the Somme campaign in November, the Battle of Ancre.

Five months later he found himself near Arras preparing for the next major battle and on the 10th April, he went into action again at the First Battle of the Scarpe. It appears that Sidney was wounded at some point on the 13th or 14th April and he was taken down the line to No.51 Field Ambulance where sadly, he succumbed to his wounds.

Sidney died on Monday, 16th April 1917.

Sidney is Remembered with Honour in Cabaret-Rouge British Cemetery, Souchez, Pas-de-Calais, France where he is interred in Grave XVII. J. 35.

He was 27 years old when he died.

Sidney was entitled to the 1914 – 15 Star, the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.