Sidney George Hoar was born in Hemel Hempstead in 1896 the third of five sons born to Harry (Henry) Hoar and Mary Elizabeth Kentish. Sidney’s siblings were Harry, Albert, Reginald and Claude. When Sidney was born, his father Harry worked as a ‘House Painter’ and the family lived at 103 Marlowes in Hemel Hempstead. His mother Mary was a ‘Dressmaker’, a trade she still plied in 1911 by which time, Sidney’s father had become a ‘Fishmonger’ and ran a shop at 89 Marlowes. Sidney’s brothers Albert and Reginald were a ‘Plumber’ and ‘Painter respectively, whilst Sidney worked as a ’Tinman’ making tinplate goods. His Uncle Walter Kentish who lived with the family was a ‘Cheesemonger’.

Sidney enlisted in March 1916, attesting at Hemel Hempstead and joining the Army Service Corps (ASC). He was posted to the 605th Mechanical Transport Company as a ‘Mechanical Transport Learner’ hence his service number prefix ‘DM2’. The British Army was the most mechanised of all in the Great War when it came to using motor vehicles for transport. All Mechanical Transport Companies were part of the ‘Lines of Communication’ and were not under orders of a Division, although some (unusually known as Divisional Supply Columns and Divisional Ammunition Parks) were in effect attached to a given Division and worked closely with it.

Those in the ‘Lines of Communication’ operated in a wide variety of roles, such as attachments to the heavy artillery as Ammunition Columns or Parks, Omnibus Companies, Motor Ambulance Convoys, or Bridging and Pontoon units. The ASC was the forerunner of the modern day ‘Logistics Corps’.

Sidney went as a Driver with the 605th Company to Salonika, one of the entry points to the Balkan theatre of war, at some time in late 1916. He went there as part of the support units for The British Salonika Force (BSF), also known as the British Salonika Army, which was commanded by Lieutenant General George Milne from May 1916. At its height, in late 1916 to early 1917, it comprised six infantry divisions, grouped into two corps, which were; XII Corps: 22nd, 26th, 60th Divisions and XVI Corps: 10th, 27th, 28th Divisions.

The Salonika Campaign was perhaps the most diverse of the First World War. By 1917, the Allies fielded 600,000 men in six national contingents: British, French, Greek, Italian, Russian and Serbian. Within the British and French forces were units from India, Indo-China, North and West Africa. At peak strength the British Salonika Force (BSF) numbered more than 228,000 officers and men. Admissions to sick lists during the campaign, because of malaria, numbered some 160,000 men, many of who succumbed or had their health ruined.

The cause of Sidney's death is likely to have been a German air raid on Summer Hill camp, at 4o'clock in the afternoon of the 27th February 1917.  The raid was brief and defended by allied naval gunners and planes from the Royal Flying Corps. However, the attack caused significant casualties as subsequently reported in  a London newspaper: "Ten bombs were dropped on Salonika without doing any military damage worth mentioning, except the destruction of a motor-lorry. An underestimate of human life anyway, for there were about 1,100 British and Allied casualties, 37 killed and 172 injured at Summer Hill where a marquee was hit and caught fire. It was full of British troops about to go on leave and about 30 were killed/ Five men were killed in a cookhouse, three in a shallow trench which had a direct hit, while 27 mules lost their lives at the 42nd Remount depot."

It would seem that Sidney was among the men killed on 27th February 1917. His death was briefly reported in the Hemel Gazette shortly after he died.

Sidney is Remembered with Honour in Salonika (Lembet Road) Military Cemetery, Greece where he is interred in Grave 894.

He was only 21 years old when he died.

Sidney was entitled to the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.