Sidney Frank Brown

A Sapper with 70th Motor Air Line Section, Sidney died on 1st of October 1918 aged 22. 

Sidney was born at Lowestoft in 1896, a son of James and Emma Frances Brown. He was baptised at Saint John’s Church on 7 June 1896 and his family lived at 14 Selby Street. By 1911 his family were living at 101 Beresford Road, and Sidney was a telegraph messenger boy. In 1912 Sidney became as assistant postman at Lowestoft and, according to the Post Office memorial books for World War One, he was working for the Post Office’s Eastern Engineering Department when he joined the Army.   

Sidney enlisted in the Army at King’s Lynn. He joined the Royal Engineers and was posted to France to serve with 70 Motor Air Line Section, a unit sent to France on 20 November 1917. Sidney’s unit was part of the Royal Engineers’ Signal Section and had the job of erecting telegraph poles to carry wires for telephone communication. The wires were known as ‘air-lines’. His unit was known as a ‘Motor’ section, because it was a mobile unit. 

Sidney died at 12 Stationary Hospital from self-inflicted injuries.