Sidney Herbert Sear was born in Watford, Hertfordshire on Monday, 26th October 1891 the youngest child of Frederick Sear and Louisa Beckley. He had three older siblings who were: Louisa Maud, Elsie Gertrude and Frederick William George. His mother Louisa died in March 1908 aged forty-six and she is buried in Heath Lane Cemetery, Hemel Hempstead. Sidney’s father Frederick was a ‘Draper’ and it was through his job that he met Sidney’s mother Louisa who worked in a drapery store in Hemel Hempstead. Sidney’s Grandparents were also both wealthy businessmen; William Sear was a successful builder, whilst George Beckley ran his own dairy.

When Sidney’s parents married in London in 1884, his father Frederick was working in Kettering in Northamptonshire and by the time of Sidney’s birth the family had moved to Watford. The Sears then moved back to Hemel Hempstead and lived at 17 Marlowes, close to both sets of Grandparents. When Sidney completed his initial schooling in Hemel Hempstead, he was sent to Watford Grammar School. He entered the school on 6th January 1902 and joined his brother Frederick who was already a pupil. When he left school in 1906, young Sidney was apprenticed to the drapery trade and by 1911, when he was nineteen, he was working as an ‘Outfitter’ for one Cecil Cook a Draper in Lewisham.

Sidney joined the Colours in August 1915 when he attested in London and enlisted with the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC). The RAMC was not a fighting force but its members saw the full horror of the war and it must be remembered that Warrant Officers and men performed their duties unarmed. The Corps lost 6,873 personnel; of these an estimated 470 officers and 3,669 other ranks were either killed in action or died of wounds.

In December 1915 Sidney was sent overseas to Egypt just as the evacuation from the Dardanelles campaign was ending. It is not known which unit he travelled with or how long he spent in Egypt, but on his return to Europe he was posted to the 4th Field Ambulance, which came under the orders of the Guards Division. The Field Ambulance was not a vehicle but the name given to a mobile front line medical unit. Each Division had three field ambulances assigned to it, comprised of ten officers and 224 men in total. The Guards Division fought at the Somme, in the Battles of Flers-Courcelette and Morval in 1916, before moving to Belgium for the Third Battle of Ypres in 1917. 

On the 7th October, Sidney was one of ninety-eight men sent into a forward position as a bearer division to assist with the evacuation of the sick and wounded in the impending assault. The attack began on the 9th October at the Battle of Poelcapelle and for two days the Division incurred significant casualties. It was on the second day that Sidney fell as efforts continued to deal with the increasing number of killed and wounded soldiers.

Sidney was killed on Wednesday, 10th October 1917, the only man in his unit to die in action on that day. 

He was commemorated on the War Memorial Plaque in Marlowes Baptist Church (now Carey), and on the plaque in Watford Grammar School for Boys.

Sidney is Remembered with Honour in Canada Farm Cemetery, West Vlaanderen, Belgium, where he is interred in Grave III. D. 17.

He was 26 years old when he died.

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