10th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment
Sydney Albert Fitts was born in the first quarter of 1884 at Cheltenham. According to the 1901 census he was a bricklayer and labourer. In the second quarter of 1903 he married and he and Alice Edith went on to have five children. The 1911 Census shows him as a labourer and living at 214 High Street, Cheltenham.
He enlisted at Cheltenham in 1915 and was posted to the 10th Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment. After training he was drafted to France on 26 December 1915 and was wounded on 21 July 1916, near to Bazentin-le-Petit on the Somme. He was repatriated to one of the hospitals under the 2nd Western General Hospital, Manchester, where he died of his wounds on 8 August 1916, aged 33. When the CWGC register was compiled his family were living at 25 Queen Street, Cheltenham.
He is buried in Cheltenham Cemetery, where his headstone is marked by a CWGC headstone. He is commemorated on the Cheltenham War Memorial, and memorials in St Peter’s Church (Tewkesbury Road) and St Mary’s Church.
Researched by Graham Adams 2 September 2012
(Acknowledgement to ‘Leaving all that was dear – Cheltenham and the Great War’ by Joe Devereux and Graham Sacker)