ROOKER, J.Sidney Clifford

Sidney Rooker was the son of Mrs Rooker of The Firs, West End, Brierley Hill.and was a keen Scoutmaster in Pensnett. He volunteered for the South Staffords Territorials, possibly before the war, and served in the 1/5th Battalion in the 46th (North Midlands) Division. They went to the Western Front and a letter home described his conditions. On June 3 he wrote, ‘I am free from any injury as yet, but I have had many narrow shaves. In the trenches this last time one shell fell just in front of our parapet, but it failed to explode. If it had, one or two of us would have gone West.’ He had his first serious experience of battle at Loos in the attack on the Hohenzollern Redoubt on the 13th October 1915. Losses were huge and the Staffords were ordered to Egypt for a posting that lasted only a few days. On return they went to the front line near Arras to take over trenches recently won from the enemy. They were determined to recapture the lost trenches and used heavy artillery and mining to do so. It was probably as a result of such an attack that Sergeant Sidney Rooker was seriously wounded and taken to a military hospital where he died of wounds on the 28th February 1916. He was 23 years of age and is buried in Prouville Churchyard, near Abbeville, and commemorated on the Brierley Hill and Brierley Hill church Memorials.