Name
Sydney Eric
1894
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
05/09/1916
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
36589
Royal Welsh Fusiliers
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
GREAT BERKHAMSTED (ST. PETER) CHURCH CEMETERY
Row 8
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
"In Loving Memory of SYDNEY ERIC PIKE WHO ENTERED INTO HIGHER LIFE SEPT 5TH 1916 WE ASKED FOR HIM LIFE, THOUGH GAVEST HIM LIFE FOR EVERMORE"
UK & Other Memorials
Berkhamsted Town Memorial, St Peter's Church Memorial, Berkhamsted, Llandrindod Wells Memorial, Wales
Pre War
Sydney Eric Pike was born in Berkhamsted, Herts in 1894, the son of David and Mary Jane Pike and one of six children.
On the 1901 Census the family were living at 180 High Street, Berkhamsted where his father was a wholesale manufacturing confectioner in sugar [sweet maker]. By 1911 they had moved to Lower King's Road, Berkhamsted, at which time Sydney (then listed as Eric Sydney) was working as a printer.
At the time of enlistment Sydney was living at Ridgebourne Post Office, Llandrindod Wells, Wales and working as a printer compositor. He gave his next of kin as his father David at 230 High Street, Berkhamsted.
Wartime Service
Sydney attested on 5 November 1915 at Llandrindod Wells and initially joined the 3rd Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers at Wrexham on 11 November 1915, but was transferred to the 2nd Battalion on 26 April 1916 when he was posted to France. He left from Southampton on the SS Copenhagen.
He joined the 2nd Battalion in the field on 7 May 1916 near Bethune.
He was wounded in action on 20 July 1916, being struck in the right knee by shrapnel, when the Battalion were advancing to High Wood Copse near Bazentin-le-Petit. He was transferred to the 101st Field Ambulance before being taken to the Casualty Clearing Station at Heilly, from where he was transferred to the 5th General Hospital at Rouen and invalided back to England on 26 July . He was admitted to the Alma Park Hospital, Levenshulme, Manchester (2nd Western General Hospital) on 2 August 1916. The shrapnel wound to his right knee had become septic and was opened and drained the same day. It was also drained on 9 and 22 August. He was running a high temperature all the time and the leg was amputated above the knee on 31 August. He died on 5 September 1916 at 8.15 pm, from septicaemia caused by a shrapnel wound to the right knee. A telegram in his service records states that relatives were present when he died and his mother received his personal belongings. He was 21 years old.
Additional Information
His father received a war gratuity of £3 and pay owing of £7.
Although there is a note in CWGC records to say to say his date of death was altered in July 1937, all the records found during this research suggest that the original date on 5 September 1916 has not changed. He has a personal headstone rather than a CWGC headstone. It reads:
"In Loving Memory of
SYDNEY ERIC PIKE WHO ENTERED INTO HIGHER LIFE
SEPT 5TH 1916
WE ASKED FOR HIM LIFE, THOUGH GAVEST
HIM LIFE FOR EVERMORE"
His brother Ralph Pike also served in France.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, ww1.wales
