CROCKETT, Sydney

Sydney Crockett was the son of John and Elizabeth Crockett and married to Anne of New Buildings, Waste Bank, Wollescote. He enlisted before 1914 in the KRRC and served in the 1st Battalion. He was a reservist in 1914 and working as a plate-layer for the Great Western Railway at Cradley Heath. He was called up to join his old battalion at Aldershot in the British Expeditionary Force. They crossed over to France on the 13th August to advance as far as Mons but were then forced to retreat to the Marne. They stopped the enemy advance and, when the line stabilised on the Aisne, they moved to Flanders to halt the threat to Ypres. On the 21st October they were fighting at Pilkem, four days later at Polygon Wood and on the 30th at Gheluvelt. On the 2nd November a counter-attack was made but in all these actions the casualties were high and Lance Corporal Sydney Crockett was killed in action on the 3rd November. He was 27 years of age and is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial and on the Lye and Wollescote and Lye church Memorials.