Sydney Bush
Sydney enlisted at Camberwell on 25 May 1915 as Private 3999, aged 19 years 3 mths. He was 5’5” tall with 33” chest and 3” expansion and described as satisfactory health at enlistment. He was hospitalised for 8 days from the 7th – 15th June 1915 with conjunctivitis & blephasitus, and served as temp Corporal from 5th – 24th October 1915, before reverting to Private at his own request.
He left for France on 2nd Jan 1916 and joined the 21st (County of London) Battalion (1st Surrey Rifles) on 24th February. He was reported missing after action in France/Flanders on 23rd May 1916 and declared dead 2 days later. He is commemorated on the Arras Memorial and has no known grave.
Sydney was one of 10 children, 2 of whom died in infancy. In 1911 five children were living at home, William a plumber, Alfred a telephone engineer, John a brass finisher for the gas company and Sydney and Dorothy who were at school. The family had lived at No. 25 Wiseton Road, although by 1917, his parents John a cabinet maker, and Jane Bush, had moved to 168 Trinity Road.
Sydney would have been a member of Trinity Road Chapel as he is also commemorated on their memorial.
His father was asked for a list of close relatives in May 1919. He had 3 brothers and 4 sisters as follows: John Thomas, aged 33, 1 Grecian Crescent Upper Norwood; Alfred Edward, aged 36, ditto; William John, aged 39, 15 Preston Rd Upper Norwood; Margaret Jane Beckett, aged 40, 80 Boundaries Rd; Dorothy Evelyn Bush, aged 18, ditto; Ellen Matilda Bush, aged 30, 168 Trinity Road; Florence Edith, aged 24, ditto. The document was witnessed by Rev Theodore Wood.
The CWGC gives his father’s address as Grosvenor House, Dock St., Porthcawl, Glam., implying he left the area sometime after the War.