| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Private Sidney Johnson of the Yorkshire Regiment died of dysentery whilst in a German POW camp in the city of Worms in Rheinland-Pfalz. He is buried at the Hauptfriedhof Cemetery in the city. His International Red Cross documents say he was captured at Craenne, France on 28 May 1918 as were the other inmates in his camp. The Beverley Guardian of 9 Nov 1917 reported his parents had been informed that their son “had been missing since the 9 October from near Ypres” in Belgium. The paper reported again on 8 Aug1918 that his parents had now been given information that their son was presumed killed in action. It is however entirely possible that he had been taken prisoner on 9 October. The Hull Daily Mail of 9 Aug 1918 said that Red Cross information had come through and it was now known that he a POW.
Sidney enlisted in the Beverley Terriers in Jan 1915 and went to France Jul 1916. He served in the 4th Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment. In Sep 1916 he was repatriated to the UK having contracted rheumatic fever. Having returned to France early in 1917, he was subsequently wounded in the left knee and ankle by shrapnel and was in hospital in France. He was later in the 13th Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment, though newspaper reports say he was “attached to the York and Lancaster Regiment” which is not confirmed by his army records. He was awarded the War and Victory medals.
Sidney according to his mother, and reported in the press, was born in Feb 1898 but Red Cross information says it was 24 Aug 1899 in Hull. His parents, F and Mary Johnson lived at 53 Trinity Lane, Beverley but by 1918 the family address was Albemarle Street, Boulevard, Hull. Sidney is described as their “oldest son”. He worked as an errand boy for John Henry Johnson a grocer of 16 Toll Gavel. Later he worked at the tannery in Beverley, before enlisting.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |