The following picture shows my Great Uncle Sydney in the garden of my Aunt Dorothy’s house in Palmers Green. He is standing behind my cousins. I have been trying to work out the year this was taken. I am the same age as one of my cousins and judging by looks I am suggesting that this was taken around 1953 which would have been the Coronation year of Queen Elizabeth 11. Uncle Sydney died in 1959. To the best of my knowledge, I never met him. Also, I knew nothing about him until I started researching the Wilcox family.
Sydney Wilcox with his Great Nieces and Nephews in Palmers Green, circa 1953 (photo from the collection of Sue Skews).
Sydney James John Wilcox was born on July 16th, 1880 in Acton, West London. His baptism was in Acton Parish Church. The Wilcox family were living in Spencer Road (at 2 Amherst Villas) and Sydney’s Dad was described as a Decorator.
Sydney appeared in his earliest Census return of 1881. At this stage of his life, aged 7 months, he was the baby of four children – Lilian aged 3, Herbert aged 6 and Ethel, who I wrote about recently, aged 7.
I’m reposting the following photo to show Sydney with his brothers. This helps to work out some of their ages and reminds you of who they were.
John Thomas Wilcox with his six sons (a scan of a photo in the collection a second cousin now deceased).
Frederick and George are on the left of the picture. My Grandfather, William, at the back. Sydney is in uniform on the right beside Herbert who is sitting and John standing on the right. Fred and George left London to begin their new lives in Wales before 1911. I know this because they appeared in the Census return for that year and one was not only married but both were settled with jobs and living in Charles Street, Tredegar. My Grandfather was born in 1890 and so I would pitch William at about 18 years old. This would set a possible date of this picture being taken in around 1908.
Sydney is obviously in the British Army. He was unmarried. Indeed he waited until he came out of the army, after a 12 year career, before he married Charlotte Beasley in 1913.
In the following picture, my Great Aunt Charlotte can be seen third from the left in the back row in the same garden as the first picture above.
Great Aunt Charlotte, third from the left, back row, standing next to Sydney. My Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Charlie are on the far left, my Grandmother, Grace Wilcox is on the far right with her arm out. (From the collection of Sue Skews)
I have no idea what Sydney did before he joined the Army. He enlisted in 1899 with the Middlesex Regiment, otherwise known as the Diehards. This is his Attestation.
The Attestation was also the oath that a recruit made to serve his Queen and Country
Sydney was fit to serve. His personal details are described here.
Sydney was small and slim and weighed only eight stone. He had a 32 inch chest and was just 5 feet 4 inches tall. This did not stop him from being accepted as a soldier with the Middlesex Regiment. He also had two special features that were recorded, a mole on the centre of his abdomen, and a tattoo on his left fore arm. This would confirm his identity other than anything else he carried if he was wounded or killed in action.
Sydney signed up on 1st December 1899.
I wonder how much training Sydney received as a recruit. The Second South African War, or the Boer War, commenced in September, when 10,000 British Army troops embarked for Natal. The siege of Ladysmith would have hit the headlines and this would have created a lot of recruitment interest. He signed up for three and then twelve years with the Colours of his regiment. His military records have survived and here is his Military record.
We can see for certain that Sydney remained in Britain and was receiving education and training up until 1902. He was promoted along the way, but then demoted and fined for failing to appear, by which I presume not returning to barracks after leave.
Sydney was sent to St Helena in 1902 for six months to guard the Boer Prisoners of War. This was followed by 4 years in South Africa, presumably keeping whatever peace there was after the Boer War. This was followed by two years in North China. It is not clear to me from limited online research what our military presence was doing in China. Then on to Singapore for two years before returning home, serving one more year before being discharged in 1911.
St Helena is a British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic Ocean. A small island, it was the perfect stopping off place for ships travelling to South Africa and beyond the Cape of South Africa. It was also the perfect place to remove prisoners from the Boer War to where they were held in camps on the island. This website has a lot of interesting photos and stories about the Boer Prisoner of War Camps on the island. Sydney would have been at the tail end of the camps on St. Helena because they were finally closed at the end of 1902.
Between 1902 and 1910 Sydney was away with his regiment, being sent to different parts of the southern hemisphere to either manage the Boer prisoner of war camps or keep the peace. He did receive the Queen’s South Africa Medal for the St Helena campaign. It is not clear to me that he saw action other than that.
At the end of 1911 Sydney was discharged from the Army after serving his 12 years with the Colours. It was a considerably long time to be away from his home country. However, he had no wife and no children to worry about. Only his parents and siblings. I’m challenged to find any information about what he did when he left the Army but I do know that by the spring of 1913 he had met and married Charlotte Beasley.
The following year, 1914, war broke out in France. Sydney immediately re-enlisted and went into the First World War. He was sent to France where he saw combat. He suffered from shell shock and later returned to Britain to be a an Army trainer in various depots.
This latter knowledge I gleaned from a newspaper cutting stuck on the back of a photo that had been sent by Sydney to his parents.
The LU Tramways date before London Transport was formed and I would have loved to have travelled on them with Sydney as the Conductor. Aunt Lotte was lucky to have her husband back after the First World War. They had no children and I wonder where all his medals and photos went to. He would no douby have earned all three of the medals that combat soldiers received after World War 1. Known as ‘Pip, Squeak and Wilfred’ the trio of medals recognised their action in combat.
Sydney lived to tell the tale and when I commemorate Remembrance Sunday this week I shall be thinking of him in particular.
Sergeant Major Sydney Wilcox. (photo courtesy of Howard Newby)
To Father and Mother from Sid