Name
Goldsmith, Sidney Goldsmith
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Pirton School Memorial
Biography
Sidney appears on the School War Memorial, confirming that he attended the school. Parish records suggest only one man of this name who could have served, and he was born on July 23rd 1894 to William and Emma Goldsmith (née Walker). Baptism and census records list twelve children, but by 1911 two had died. At this time, only ten can be identified with certainty. They are Frederick Goldsmith Walker (b July 1879 – William and Emma married in October 1879), George (b 1881, d 1883 aged two), Mary Jane (b 1883, Jane Mary in the 1901 census), William Charles (b 1885, d 1912), John (b 1887), Bertie (b 1890), Susan (b 1892), Sidney (b 1894), Edward (b 1896), Alice Mabel (b 1898) and Emily Elizabeth (b 1901). One of the unknown children could be Harry (b1904, died at two months), which would leave one unnamed. Edward, Ted’s brother, served and survived. It is also possible that the John Goldsmith, who also served and survived, was Sidney’s brother, but there appear to be two possibilities with Ted’s brother being one.
By 1911, Sidney was sixteen and working as a farm labourer on one of the local farms. The Parish Magazine of September 1915 records him as enlisting during 1915, but before August, and serving in the Royal Engineers. He would have been about twenty years old.
The Hertfordshire Express of April 13th 1914 reports Sidney’s parents as living around Little Green - in fact they had done so since at least 1901. It also confirms the fact that his younger brother, Ted, was also serving and that both men had been wounded.
Acknowledgments
Text from the book ‘The Pride of Pirton’ by Jonty Wild, Tony French & Chris Ryan used with author's permission.
