Name
Lewis Sills
1886
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
23/10/1916
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
9683
Cameronians (Scottish Rifles)
2nd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier and Face 4 D.
France
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Berkhamsted War Memorial, St Michael's Church Memorial, Berkhamsted, Sunnyside Memorial, Berkhamsted, Not on the Northchurch memorials
Pre War
Lewis (Henry) Sills was born in Northchurch, Herts in 1886 to Alfred Sills, a brush stock maker and Elizabeth (nee Blackwell). On the 1891 and 1901 Censuses the family were living in Ellesmere Road, Northchurch, Berkhamsted, and he was working as a labourer in a wooden ware yard in 1901.
By the age of 19 Lewis had enlisted in the 4th (Hertfordshire Volunteer) Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment as Private 5118 but bought himself out in 1905 for the sum of £1. However on 23 July 1907 he again enlisted in the 4th as Private 5879 and transferred to 2nd Battalion, Scottish Rifles n on 13 Aug 1907 as Private 9683 and a regular soldier.
On the 1911 Census he is recorded with the 1st Battalion (Cameronians) Regiment in South Africa at Tempe, Bloemfontein, Orange Free State, South Africa.
Wartime Service
At the outbreak of war the 1st Battalion (The Cameronians) were stationed at Maryhill Barracks Glasgow and the 2nd (Scottish Rifles) Battalion were in Malta, returning to England and then moving to France, landing in Le Havre on 5 November 1914.
At some time Lewis must have transferred to the 2nd Battalion as date of entry to France is the same as that of the 2nd Battalion. In 1916 the 2nd Battalion were on the Somme battlefield and on 23 October 1916 were part of an attack on Zenith Trench, Le Transloy. The attack was successful but 47 were killed, 167 wounded and 14 missing. Lewis was among the casualties that day. He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, France.
Additional Information
His father received a war gratuity of £12 10s and pay owing of £19 19s 9d. His mother received a pension of 12s 6d a week.
N.B. The Sills family were living next door to the Pitkin family in Ellesmere Road, Northchurch, in 1891, whose son John Edward also died in 1916. Both are named on the Thiepval Memorial and the Berkhamsted Memorial.
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper, Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild
