| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information
Sidney Horner was born in Beverley in Apr 1897, the second of four children of Edward Horner, a bricklayer’s labourer, and his wife Henrietta (nee Hillerby).
For a short period commencing Jul 1911, Sidney was a member of the Beverley Church Lads’ Brigade which formed in 1908. The CLB Roll Book describes him as “quiet, shy”. 175 past or current members of the Beverley Brigade were old enough to serve during WW1 and Sidney was one of the 132 who enlisted.
Sidney enlisted in the Yorkshire Dragoons on 16 Oct 1915 and stayed in the UK until Mar 1917 when he embarked for the BEF in France, later transferring to the 13th Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment. On 24 Nov 1917 he was captured and became a POW in Munster. He was released in Nov 1918 and returned to the UK where he was demobilised in Apr 1919. He was awarded the British War and Victory Medals.
In the 1911 census, Sidney, aged 13, is shown employed as an errand boy. At the time of his release from the prisoner of war camp in Nov 1918 he was described as a market gardener, when he married in 1929, he was living in Blackley, Manchester, and his occupation was given as “Male Nurse”. Sidney married Mabel Dearnley on 24 Aug 1929, in Thurstonland, near Holmfirth, where Mabel was born. Sidney and Mabel had twin sons, Ian and Derek, born in Manchester in 1938. The 1939 Register lists Sidney, “male mental nurse”, married, living alone at 28 Bluebell Avenue, Moston, Manchester, and Mabel and the two boys living with Mabel’s sister Elsie and husband in Holmfirth.
At the time of their deaths, both Sidney and Mabel were registered as living at 28 Bluebell Avenue, Moston, Manchester. Sidney died in 1977 and Mabel in 1979.
Includes information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |