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S/9473 2nd Battalion, Rifle Brigade
Edward Blythe known as Sidney was born in 1895 in Great Cornard, one of three children of Charles and Rosina Blythe. The family lived in Clarence Road, Sudbury before they moved to 5 Newmans Road. Sidney had an older brother who served in the army as an officer with the Army Service Corps, a younger sister Dorothy and two older half sisters, Emily and Ethel. Sidney was employed as a roundsman for a local oil and hardware shop before he moved to Chelsea, London where he worked as a barman.
He enlisted on 7 April 1915 and his army record states that he was 5ft 5ins in height, with a full chest measurement of 34 ins and good physical development. Sidney first served in France on 29 September 1915.
A report in the Suffolk and Essex Free Press in September 1916 lists Sidney as having been ‘wounded’. It is possible that he was injured at the Battle of Albert (1–13 July 1916) when the battalion took part in the first phase of what we today know as the Battle of the Somme. In 1917 the battalion which formed part of 25th Brigade, 8th Division saw action in several battles during the Third Battle of Ypres (31 July–20 November) including the opening attack at the Battle of Pilckem Ridge (31 July–2 August), the battles of Langemarck (16-18 August) and Menin Road (20–25 September).
Sidney was killed in action on 2 December 1917 aged 22. There is no known grave and he is remembered on the Tyne Cot Memorial, near Ypres, Belgium. He was awarded the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.
A Cross of Remembrance was laid at the Tyne Cot Memorial in April 2006 and April 2009. He is also remembered on Baptist Church Memorial in Church Street.
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