Gloucestershire Regiment
Virtually no documentation has survived that gives an insight into Private Stephens’ military service and it is something of a surprise that the above photograph has been published on the Ancestry website.
Sydney Adolphus Stephens was born at Oakridge (between Chalford and Bisley) on 23 August 1887. He was baptised in the local parish church on 8 July 1888. His parents were George Stephens (1856-1951), a farm labourer and his wife Georgina (1862-1947; née Harris). The census of 1911 records that the couple had fifteen children, of whom thirteen were surviving by that year.
The family home was always in Oakridge or one of the surrounding villages and hamlets. The 1901 Census records that Sydney, aged 13, was already working as a labourer, no doubt on a local farm. By 1911 he was lodging with the Tilling family at Edgeworth and working as a carter or wagon driver on a farm. His parents were living at Waterland, near Bisley.
Sydney almost certainly volunteered for military service. Soldiers Died in the Great War (SDGW) states that he enlisted at Cheltenham. There appears to be confusion as to the battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment in which he served. The Commonwealth War Graves (CWGC) Register and SDGW state that it was the 1st Battalion, yet his entry in the Glosters’ Medal Rolls shows the 2nd Battalion. Possibly the latter is the more likely, as prior to his death he would have been posted to the strength of the Regimental Depot.
His Medal Rolls Index Card notes that he first went abroad to France on 2 April 1915. This would serve to indicate that he probably enlisted in August/ September 1914 and had completed his training. The battalion War Diary for the 2nd Battalion has an entry for 6 April 1915 noting the arrival of a draft of 95 men. At that time the battalion was serving in the Ypres Salient, as part of 81 Brigade, 27 Division. In November 1915 the battalion was posted to the Salonika Front, where an Anglo-French force was fighting the Bulgarians. Did Sydney Stephens go with them and was subsequently wounded (or fell sick) and returned to the UK or was he wounded previously and transferred to the 1st Battalion? In the absence of any evidence of his service, it is not possible to know. If he did transfer to the 1st Battalion, it is possible that he was wounded in April or May 1916, whilst the battalion was in the Loos sector.
The only hint that we have that he was wounded is an entry in the weekly casualty list, as published in the Gloucester Journal of 20 May 1916, which lists him as previously reported as wounded and missing but now killed in action.
According to the Army Register of Soldiers’ Effects he died at Southern General Hospital, Portsmouth, on 19 May 1916, age 28. He was buried two days later in the churchyard of St Mary’s, Edgeworth. A standard CWGC headstone now marks his grave.
Sydney’s brother, Philip George, served as a Private (29578) in the Glosters between May and August 1916, before being discharged; his services no longer required.
Researched by Graham Adams 28 December 2020