Lost in translation
While on a visit to Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres, amateur historian Peter Flower came across the name of a soldier who served as part of the Canadian Expeditionary Force during WWI. Nothing unusual there, except the soldier was from Twickenham, northwest London. So just what was it that made him serve Canada? Peter took it upon himself to find out
There are more than 54,000 names on the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres commemorating those missing in action from the Ypres Salient during World War I; one of those names is that of Private Sydney Deayton who served with the Princess Patricia’s Light Infantry as part of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. There is nothing much to distinguish him from all the other men listed who have no known grave. Except that while Sydney enlisted in Ontario he was English and came from Twickenham in South West London.
So how did Sydney, a store salesman, from the leafy suburbs of suburban London end up enlisting in Canada and being killed during a German offensive in June 1916 at Mount Sorrel?
The trail starts with the wooden war memorial in the Vineyard Congregational Church in Richmond where the names of eleven men killed in the First War are carved in wood; their regimental badges displayed at the sides of the memorial. The East Surrey Regiment, the Royal Artillery, and the Royal Army Medical Corps are some of the units these men from the church served in. But there is also the maple leaf badge of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. A process of elimination of the men listed on the memorial together with research from the archives of Commonwealth Graves Commission showed that it was ‘SP Deayton’.
SP Deayton was actually Sydney Prior Deayton and his father, Alfred, was a grocer who lived in Twickenham with his wife Martha and their five sons and one daughter. The Census Records of 1901 show that Sydney, aged 23 was still living at home with the rest of his family and was working as a clerk in his father’s store.
There are no shipping records that show him crossing the Atlantic, but in September 1915, Canadian Army records show him turning up in Toronto, Ontario. Many emigrants from Britain joined local units to fight for King and Country. We know that he signed up to serve in the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry. Princess Patricia of Connaught, the daughter of the Duke of Connaught, Canada’s Governor General, was its patron.
Sydney’s army Attestation Record shows that he was single, still a salesman and that by now his father was living at an address in Bristol. His date of birth is given as 1882 making him 32; although, from the British Census Records it is known that he was actually 38. Why he should have given a false date of birth is unclear; the upper age for enlistment at the time was 45 so there was no obvious reason to lie about his age.
However, the biggest hurdle for most older men in enlisting was apparently health and dental issues. Maybe he thought he might stand a better chance of being accepted if he said he was younger. In any event, the Medical Officer, Captain Barton, who examined him, noted a circular scar under his right wrist but passed him as fit for duty. He was therefore sworn in and enlisted into the 4th University Company on 22 September 1915.
Sydney arrived back in England a few months after joining up and was posted to the 11th Battalion in December; it was at this time that the regiment became part of the newly formed 3rd Canadian Division as a unit of the 7th Brigade. Other units of the Brigade included the Royal Canadian Regiment, the 42nd Battalion (Black Watch) and the 49th Battalion (The Edmonton Regiment). Whether Sydney managed to see his family during home leave is not known. His unit crossed to France on 24 March 1916 and on 9th April he joined the regiment in the Sanctuary Wood sector of the Ypres Salient in Flanders. He was therefore at the forefront of the German offensive to overrun Mount Sorrel which began at 6am on 2 June 1916.
The Canadian troops held what little high ground there was, which gave them observation over the German positions but made them a prime target for the German troops to overrun. The Canadian troops experienced a terrifying ordeal of intense bombardment that lasted four hours. Trenches vanished and the troops sheltering in them were annihilated. A German eye-witness to the general conflict wrote that: “The whole enemy position was a cloud of dust and dirt, into which timber, tree trunks, weapons, and equipment were continuously hurled up and occasionally human bodies.”
During the morning the deluge of fire continued in intensity, and just after 1pm the Germans exploded four underground mines short of the Canadian trenches on Mount Sorrel and then attacked. In bright sunlight, the Germans advanced in four waves spaced about 75 yards apart. There was fierce fighting, much of it hand to hand and most of the Canadian positions were overrun.
Sydney Deayton was later reported missing in action, as were all the other men in his unit. The news would have taken a little time to reach his 74-year-old father in England. No doubt the family hoped against hope that he had been taken prisoner. The church was informed that Sydney was missing in action ‘on the Western Front’.
His unit had been positioned in a bay on the extreme right of a trench called Trench 62 during the attack, but it transpired later that they were all killed as a result of being heavily bombarded by trench mortars. Sydney’s service had lasted little more than eight months, from enlisting in Ontario to being blown up defending a small piece of a Flanders field. The Patricia’s had more than 400 casualties including 150 killed during this engagement.
Sydney’s death is commemorated on the memorial at the Menin Gate as well as the small memorial at the Vineyard Church in Richmond. Sadly, no photographs or other records have been found for him despite a recent appeal to the local newspaper, the Richmond and Twickenham Times. If any reader has more information about Sydney or his family, please contact the author at pjflower@btinternet.com so that some more of his story can be pieced together.
