Sydney Mervin Reginald's Story.
EARLY LIFE
Sydney Mervin Reginald Green was born on 18th October and baptised on 7th November 1897 at St Mary’s Trimulgherry, Madras, India, the son of Mary Jane (nee Parker) and John Green, Sergeant of the 1st Bn. Cheshire Regiment.
The family moved several times, as shown by the birthplaces of their children. John James, Charles Harold, Sydney Mervin Reginald and Edward Ira were all born in the Madras Presidency, India; followed by Martha Matilda and William Ernest, who were born in the Bombay Presidency, India; Ethel Violet was born in Chester, and Doris and Gladys Winifred were both born in Macclesfield. When Doris was baptised at St Michael's Church in Macclesfield in January 1909, the family address was 27 Brunswick Terrace and John was described as Colour Sergeant Instructor, 7th Cheshires. The family were at the 7th Battalion Cheshire Drill Hall, Albert Street, Congleton, on the night of the 1911 census.
Sydney was a member of the Macclesfield Scouts.
The Green family moved to 49 Lowerhouse, Bollington in early 1914.
WW1 SERVICE
Sydney attested at Congleton as a bugler, joining the local 7th Battalion of the Cheshire Regiment. After training, he volunteered for overseas service with the 5th Battalion of the Cheshire Regiment and entered France on the 14th February 1915. His unit progressed to the Ypres Salient and were in the trenches for the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915. Sydney died of a bullet wound to the head on 11th June 1915, aged 17 years. His death was reported in the Times newspaper of 6th July 1915, and a letter from a comrade in the same battalion, Private J. Holland, printed in the Macclesfield Courier of 10th July 1915, states:
We were relieved out of the trenches on Thursday night, after having been in 17 days….. We had an awful lot of casualties…. I am sorry to tell you we lost three Macclesfield lads. Percy Wilson was fetching some water from a pump we had rigged up behind the trench, and Sergeant-Major Green’s son was killed by a bullet. He was standing in a trench when a stray bullet entered his head, and when they got him to the dressing station he was dead. And then there was Dakin, out of Hurdsfield Road. He was killed by a sniper. The bullet went through his head and wounded another chap in the shoulder.
COMMEMORATION
Drummer Sydney Green is buried in grave ref. I. G. 13. in Spoilbank Cemetery in Belgium. His mother asked for the following inscription to be added to his headstone:
“ALSO IN LOVING MEMORY OF L/C CHARLES HAROLD GREEN, GREN GDS, KILLED IN ACTION 14TH SEPT 1916”
In Macclesfield, Sydney Green is commemorated on the Park Green, Town Hall and St Michael's Church war memorials, and in Bollington he is commemorated on the family gravestone at St John's Church, grave ref. E.1125.
NOTES
Brother of Charles Harold Green who was killed in action at the Somme in September 1916. His death was reported in the Macclesfield Times of 29th September 1916.
Research by Rosie Rowley, Congleton.