Bates, Sidney

Sidney was born in Long Buckby, Northamptonshire the only son of John and Hannah (nee Page) in 1879.

Sidney enlisted with the Royal Field Artillery in September 1901. He was posted to Madras as a gunner in 1903 and there, in 1906, passed the wheelwrights course. He had been a wheelwright when he enlisted but served as a gunner until 1910. In 1914 he was sent to France and served as a wheelwright. Sidney survived the War and was demobbed in 1919. He returned to Ashwell, Hertfordshire.

He is commemorated on the St Mary’s Church Ashwell Roll of Honour.

The 1901 census shows him boarding in West Haddon and working as a wheelwright.

Sidney married Charlotte Elizabeth Picking in Ashwell, Hertfordshire on 14 March 1908. They had two children, Edward Picking Bates, born 30 May 1909, and Leslie John Bates, born 2 January 1911.  Charlotte died on 7 July 1917.

Sidney married again on 5 July 1919, he married Alice Maud Watling at Ashwell, Hertfordshire. The 1939 census shows them living in Blyth Suffolk with Sidney a chimney sweep.

Sidney died in 4 quarter 1945 at Blyth, Suffolk