Name
Gordon Sidney Archer
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
17/02/1916
17
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
4974
The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment)
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
CAMBRIN MILITARY CEMETERY
F.4.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Sawbridgeworth Town Memorial, St Mary's Church Memorial, Sawbridgeworth, We are not aware of any Bulbourne memorial
Pre War
Gordon was known as Sidney. He was born on the 21st September 1898 in Bulbourne, Nr. Tring, Herts. and the son of Albert John and Alice Jane Archer (Née Turney).
Their four children were Lionel, Percy, Stanley and Doris. His father Albert was a retired RSM with the Herts Yeomanry. He opened a tailors shop in Bell Street, Sawbridgeworth.
The 1901 census records that Gordon was known as Sidney. He was two and living with his parents, three brothers and sister Doris, at Brook Road, (Brook Dale) Sawbridgeworth, Herts. Sidney’s mother died and his father later remarried, to Rebecca Holgate – she had two children: Arnold Holgate and Percy Wadsworth. It seems that all six children were Baptised together, in Sawbridgeworth. In the 1911 census records he was still called as Sidney. He was 13, at school and living with his father, stepmother Rebecca, brothers, sisters and stepbrothers in Hoestock Road, Sawbridgeworth, Herts.
His father Albert was a retired RSM with the Herts Yeomanry. He opened a tailors shop in Sawbridgeworth, after he retired from the army.
Wartime Service
Sidney enlisted into the 1st Battalion, The Queens (Royal West Surry) Regiment, still using his middle name Sidney. This was a regular Battalion which went to France in August 1914. However, by November of that year, there were only 32 survivors from the original Battalion strength of 998. Replacements were hurriedly sent across to France. Firstly, from the Territorials, then from ‘Kitchener’ volunteers.
Gordon must have lied about his age, for he was one of those ‘Kitchener’ volunteers and a man was not supposed to serve overseas until the age of 19..
On the 13 February 1916, his Battalion was moved up into the trenches near Beuvry in Northern France. This was a quiet sector. The Battalion diary has little to report except night patrols on the 14th, 15th and 16th. There was however, one casualty killed on each of these nights. Since nobody is recorded as killed on the 17 February 1916, the date given for Gordon Archer’s death, it must be assumed that he died on that night patrol of the 16th and it was recorded the next day.
Gordon Archer is buried in Cambrin Military Cemetery, France. He was aged 17.
Additional Information
His headstone reads “God be with you til we meet again” which was requested by his mother. His brothers, Percy, Stanley and stepbrother Arnold Holgate also died, but his brother Lionel and stepbrother Percy Walsworth survived the war. Strangely Percy Archer is not named on the local War Memorials.
Acknowledgments
Jill Butterworth (née Archer), Jonty Wild, Stuart Osborne, David Harvey - Leventhorpe School, Douglas Coe
