Sidney Barber

A Lance Corporal with the 7th Battalion, Sidney died on 21st of March 1916 at the age of 28. 

Sidney was born at Broome, Norfolk, on 14 October 1887, a son of Robert and Anna Barber. From 5 May 1890 to 23 October 1899 Sidney was a pupil at Broome School. By 1901 his father had died and his family lived at Yarmouth Road, Broome, and Sidney was a bricklayer’s labourer. 

Sidney was living at Bungay and working as a blacksmith at W. and S. Green Carriage Works, Bungay, when he attested for the 3rd (Militia) Battalion Norfolk Regiment, at Starston, Norfolk, on 11 January 1904. He joined the regular battalions of the Norfolk Regiment on 3 March 1904. 

By 1911 Sidney was an army reserve and his family lived at 10 Oulton Street, Lowestoft, and Sidney was a trawler fisherman.

Sidney was mobilized when the First World War began and he arrived in France with the 1st Battalion on 16 August 1914. He served with B Company. In late April 1915 the 1st Battalion were in trenches at Hill 60, Ypres. Sidney received a gunshot wound to his left arm and was admitted to 14 Field Ambulance on 28 April 1915 and was then admitted to No 3 Casualty Clearing Station. Once recovered Sidney was posted to the 7th Battalion. 

On 19 March 1916 the 7th Battalion moved into positions at the Hohenzollern Redoubt, near Loos. On 21 March the Germans were seen digging a sap toward the British lines. The Norfolks retaliated with bombs (hand grenades) which stopped the work, but during the night both sides continued to throw bombs. Soldiers Died in the Great War shows that Sidney was the only man of the Battalion that was killed on that day.