51st Training Battalion, Training Reserve
Sidney Gilbert Corlett was one of eleven children born to Thomas Edward and Ellen Elizabeth Corlett and was born in Gloucester on 5 March 1883. The family lived in St Paul’s Road and Thomas Corlett was a grain mill foreman at Gloucester Docks (probably with Priday Metford & Company).
He was originally educated at the King’s School in Gloucester (the Cathedral School) but moved to Sir Thomas Rich’s School at about the age of thirteen. It is thought that he may have been a chorister at the King’s School until his voice broke.
Upon completion of his education he became one of the first library assistants appointed following the opening of the Gloucester Public Library. After staying in the job for eight years he applied for the post of Librarian at the Earlestown (Newton-le-Willows) Public Library in Lancashire. He was selected for the post over numerous applicants and started his appointment on 25 August 1908. His initial work was to organise and systemise the work of the Library in readiness for its opening, which took place on 22 July 1909: the opening was conducted by Lord Newton.
Studious and quiet by nature, he became a well-respected and much liked librarian and during his spare time he was associated with church work in Wargrave parish and for a time contributed a weekly article to the Earlestown Guardian on literary topics. During his time in Gloucester he held the post of organist for some years at the Church of the Good Shepherd.
He was called up for military service in early 1916 and the Library Committee appealed strongly but unsuccessfully for his exemption, on the grounds of his ‘indispensability’ to the work of the Library. Just prior to entering the Army he married Miss Helen Foster, of Glasgow, on 1 March 1916, at Dowanhill Free Church and the couple took up residence at 1 Park Road, Newton-le-Willows.
He was initially posted to the South Lancashire Regiment and given the Service Number 27771. The CWGC Register states that he was part of 10th Battalion but a memorial in Emmanuel Church, Newton-le-Willows states this to be the 7th Battalion. The latter is probably incorrect as the 7th Battalion was a Service Battalion that served abroad, whereas, according to British Regiments 1914-1918 by Brigadier E A James, the 10th Battalion was a Reserve Battalion, based at Prees Heath, which on 1 September 1916 became 51st Training Reserve Battalion in 11th Reserve Brigade. Within a few months Sidney’s organisational abilities were recognised and he was promoted to the rank of Quarter Master Serjeant.
The Prees Heath Camp near Whitchurch, Shropshire and had its own railway depot branch line connected to the LNWR Crewe & Shrewsbury Railway. On 25 February 1917 Sidney was killed accidentally on the railway line. He was just short of his 34th birthday. The exact circumstances were not established and the inquest recorded an open verdict. However, as a Quarter Master Serjeant, Sidney would have probably been involved with supplies being delivered by rail and it seems likely that during the movement or unloading of stores an accident occurred.
It was his family’s wish that he was brought back to Gloucester, the city of his birth, for burial and he was interred in the Gloucester Old Cemetery, following a service a St Luke’s Church, which many attended, including a large contingent of mourners from Lancashire. His grave is now marked by a CWGC headstone.
A photograph of Sidney Corlett once hung in the Public Library at Earlestown and he is commemorated on the Newton-le-Willows and Earlestown War Memorial and those of Sir Thomas Rich’s School and King’s School, Gloucester.
Research by Graham Adams 18 December 2013
(Sources of information Newton-le-Willows and Earlestown War Memorial Great War Roll of Honour; Gloucester Journal, March 1917 and Bob Brunsdon (Cheltenham & Gloucester Branch WFA). Photo from Public Member Tree on Ancestry.