| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Sydney Harrison was born in Leeds in 1896, the eldest of eight children of William and Lilly Elvira Harrison. William was originally from Fridaythorpe, the son of a gardener and Lilly was from Beverley, the daughter of Charles and Maria Dove, of Flemingate.
Sydney enlisted in the 6th Battalion South Lancashire Regiment on 11 Dec 1915, he was working as a horseman for a cloth finisher in Leeds and living with his parents at 11 Westfield Road Leeds. Sydney was five foot eight and a half inches tall, weighed in at 124 pounds and had a 35 inch chest. In Mar 1916 the 6th Battalion of the South Lancashire regiment with the North Lancashire regiment landed in Basra to form the 13th Division of ‘Kitcheners New Army’. Private Sydney Harrison as part of this expeditionary force to Mesopotamia, died of wounds received in action, specifically a gunshot wound to the chest, on 11 Feb 1917, at Basra in the attempt to relieve the besieged British garrison of Kut. For his service Sydney was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal and is remembered on panel number 23 of the Basra Memorial.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |