24 January 2016

Sidney Albert Green

This is another search which was very difficult. During the many hours of research I worked out that there was confusion about birth dates, names of siblings, false leads and a tragic death.
I recently received the BWM awarded to 633 Sidney Albert Green who was an original member of the 7th Light Horse Regiment. However, his service record tells many different stories about this soldier. He was at Gallipoli by May 1915 but reported as missing in August. He was hospitalised several times and transferred to 2nd Light Horse Regiment. His records shows that he was charged with being AWL and court martialed for leaving his post while a sentry. Something went wrong with Sidney as he was discharged for 'mental instability' in 1917.
An interesting piece of correspondence in his file is dated 1963 when the Public Trustee was looking for information about Sidney's' NOK to finalise his estate. This letter gave me his date of death but more importantly indicated that there were no children registered. A complicating factor is that some records spelt Sidney's name as Sydney.
Quite a bit of searching found that Sidney married Maggie Knell in 1920. They married in Victoria and there is no record, either in NSW or Victoria supporting that they had children. Maggie died in 1966 back in Victoria.
Using the date of death noted in his service record, I stumbled across this article from 1960 about hoe Sidney died. It is a rather tragic set of circumstances. Even though there is mention of a daughter I am sure that this is not accurate.
The details about Maggie Knell led me to an Ancestry family tree and I've now been in contact with a relative who I'll send the medal to. They have also confirmed that there is no evidence that Sidney and Maggie had children.Thanks go to Pam E who sent me the medal.
The returned medal tally is now 1763.
 

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