Name
Sidney Thomas Fleckney
4th April 1893
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
04/06/1916
23 years.
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
13164
Bedfordshire Regiment
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ARRAS MEMORIAL
Bay 5
France
Headstone Inscription
He has no Headstone, he is commeorated on the Arras Memorial to the missing.
UK & Other Memorials
Great Offley Village Memorial, St Mary Magdalen Church Memorial, Great Offley, Not on the Kings Walden memorials, Queens Square Boys School Roll of Honour, Luton
Pre War
Sidney Thomas Fleckney was born in Kings Walden, Hertfordshire, on 4th April 1893, the son of George Fleckney (B 1861 in Darley Hall, Herts) and Hannah (nee Adams) Fleckney (B1863 in Kings Walden, Herts).
Sidney was Baptised in St Mary’s Church Kings Walden, on 14th May 1893.
1901 Census records Sidney aged 7, living with his parents, brothers Albert 13, Herbert 5 Walter H 3, sisters Elizabeth 15 and Edith 6 months, at Mangrove Green, Offley, Herts.
Sidney attended Queens Square Boys School, Luton.
In 1906 his mother Hannah Fleckney died.
1911 Census records Sidney aged 17, working as a Straw-Hat Blocker, living with his widower father, brothers Albert 23, George H 15 and Harry 13, in Mangrove Green, Offley, Herts.
Wartime Service
Sidney enlisted in Luton, Beds, posted to the Bedfordshire Regiment with the service No 13164.
Sidney was posted to France disembarking there on the 24th March 1915.
He was reported missing after an engagement on the 4th June 1916 and later presumed Killed in Action on that date. The Battalion War Diary records them as being in trenches near Arras.
He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Arras Memorial to the Missing, Arras, Pas de Calais, France.
The Parish Magazine states 2nd Bedfords whereas elsewhere he is shown as 1st Bedfords. Unlikely to be the 2nd Bedfords as they were "resting" out of the line at the time (S.131). The 151 Battalion of the Bedfords were in and out of the front line at Roclingcourt near Arras and he was most probably killed during a trench raid.
Additional Information
His effects of £3-15s-1d, pay owing and £8, War Gratuity went to his sister Mrs Elizabeth Henman. His younger brother Private G/14538 George Frederick Fleckney, 9th Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment was killed in Action on Thursday 21st March 1918, he has no known grave and is commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial to the missing, Somme, France..
Acknowledgments
Stuart Osborne
Adrian Dunne, Stuart Osborne
