Private Sidney Alfred Withey
1st Battalion, Devonshire Regiment
Killed in Action
Date of Birth: 4 April 1892
Place of Birth: Custom House, West Ham, Essex
Date of Death: 23 April 1917 aged 21
Buried: Remembered on Arras Memorial, France and Shaldon War Memorial.
Awarded the 1914-15 Star, The British War Medal and the Victory Medal
Private Sidney Alfred Withey aged 21.
Sidney was born in the spring of 1896 at Custom House, West Ham, Essex.
He was the son of William Henry Withey, who died in 1897 at sea, and Ellen Gertrude, (née Hooper) of Exmouth.
The 1911 census shows Sidney as a 16 year old shop assistant working in a furniture department.
He and his 15 year old brother Robert Henry (who is working as a grocer's assistant), are living (without others) at 29, Albion Street, Shaldon.
Following the outbreak of war Sidney joined the Devonshire Regiment, 1st Battalion, service no 11484, and lost his life along with so many others on the battlefields of France.
He died onactive service on 23 April 1917.
He left a war gratuity of £12, his brother Chas (Charles) requested that it be paid to his mother.
Remembered on Arras Memorial, France and Shaldon War Memorial.
Charles's mother (standing centre) with the Shaldon Lace-making School
Sidney's brother Charles (Chas) Thomas H Withey died when the ship that he was serving on was torpedoed and sunk on 4 August 1917 in the Bay of Biscay.
Ellen Withey tragically received the news of the loss of two of her sons within such a very short time.
She was known in the village as a member of the Shaldon Lace Making School.
