I first published this post in 2014 and it seems very fitting to republished today on the 100th anniversary of the armistice. Amazingly my Dad discovered this newspaper amongst his own fathers memorabilia yesterday. This morning I will be going to our local service to remember all of those who perished in this and other wars but I will especially remember Sid who died so young.
Sydney Bacon was my Great Great Uncle who died in World War 1 in the battle of Kut in Mesopotamia (now Iraq). He was just 19 – the same age as my own son Tom is now.
Until last week I knew nothing about Sydney. It was my cousin Tracey who uncovered his history as part of the research that she is doing into our family tree. I was keen to find out more so she shared access to the information that she has been gathering on Ancestry.com, where I found out a bit more about Sydney’s family. Born in Norwich he was one of twelve children. His father was called Issac and his mother was called Deborah. This struck another cord – a link to the past that shared my name. Not only that ,amazingly there were photos of both Issac and Deborah on the site which you can see here.
Deborah Bacon my Great Great Grand Mother
Issac Bacon my Great Great Grand Father (on the left)
Intrigued at what I had found, out phoned my mum who was able to fill in a bit more of the story. She said she remembers being told that Issac had died in an accident in the brickworks where he worked, probably the place where he appears in the photograph above. After he died Deborah became a pauper. My Mum also remembers that her own granny Alice, Sydney’s sister, placed a poppy by his photo every remembrance day. Sadly we have no copy of that photo as Alice’s house was bombed in the blitz in Norwich and everything was destroyed. Alice my Great Grandmother also lost her life.
So on remembrance day, I can’t place a poppy by Sydney’s photo but this morning I took a photo of some poppies still blooming in a Norfolk field and I have added his name to it. I have also released his story into the internet so that he can be remembered amongst so many millions who lost their lives in the wars.
