Name
Sidney Francis Dawes
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
09/10/1918
22
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Second Lieutenant
Royal Garrison Artillery
236th Siege Battery
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
BUSIGNY COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION
Plot V, Row A, Grave 8.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Watford Borough Roll of Honour, St Andrew's Church Memorial, Watford, Watford Grammar School Memorial, Watford Grammar School Book of Remembrance, Not on any Bushey memorial, Jesus College War Memorial, Oxford, Royal Artillery War Commemoration Book
Pre War
Sidney Francis Dawes was born in Clapham on 4 April 1896 and was the youngest of the three children of Albert Henry Dawes and Beatrice (née Dickson) Dawes.
His parents married 29 March 1888 at St Philip’s, Battersea, London. Beatrice died 20 June 1922 in Bushey and 56, and was buried 24 June at St James’, Bushey; Albert died 6 December 1932 in Wimbledon, London, aged 73, and was buried 10 December, also at St James.
His father was a private tutor and the family lived initially in Battersea,
On the 1901 Census, Sidney was aged 4 and was living in Battersea, with his parents and two siblings. He later attended Watford Boys’ Grammar School from 3 September 1903 to July 1908 and then obtained a scholarship to Christ’s Hospital at Horsham, Sussex. Sidney became a house monitor there. He is shown there as a boarder, aged 14, in the 1911 census, the family were living at 26 St Albans Road, Watford.
1913-14, and was a Classical Exhibitor at Jesus College, Oxford, from where he matriculated in 1915.
Wartime Service
Sidney was gazetted on 16 August 1917 from Officers’ Cadet Unit to 2nd Lieutenant from 5 August 1917 and served with the Royal Garrison Artillery. He was killed on 9 October 1918, aged 22, during the Cambrai Offensive in a German air raid near Bohain.
He was buried at Busigny Communal Cemetery Extension. He is also commemorated on the Jesus College Oxford War Memorial, in the Royal Artillery Commemoration Book, at St Andrews Church Watford, in the Watford Borough Roll of Honour and in the Watford Grammar School Book of Remembrance.
He was entitled to the Victory and British War medals.
Additional Information
The published Watford Grammar School Book of Remembrance entry reads:
“DAWES, SIDNEY FRANCIS. School period: September,1903, to July, 1908. Second Lieutenant, R.G.A. Killed in Cambrai offensive, 8th October, 1918.”
Acknowledgments
Andrew Palmer
Dianne Payne - www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk, Jonty Wild, Sue Carter (Research) and Watford Museum (ROH on line via www.ourwatfordhistory.org.uk)
