| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information
Sydney Helyard was born as Sydney Peck in Beverley on 17 Aug 1897. He was baptised at St Mary’s Church the 31 Aug 1897, his mother was Annie Violet Peck. In 1901 Annie married Jonas Taylor Helyard of Beverley and went on to have seven children. The family home was in Minstermoorgate and later 110 Keldgate though Sydney was initially brought up by his grandparents in Hengate. Sydney worked as an errand boy at a dairy but by the time war broke out was employed at the whiting works of Storry and Witty, Queensgate. He was unmarried.
Sydney arrived in France in late 1916. He served as a private in the East Yorkshire Regiment in the 1/5th, 1/4th and then the 8th Battalions. He was transferred to the 7th Battalion of the Lincolnshire Regiment where he served as a corporal. A report in the Beverley Guardian of 12 Oct 1918 does note that he had been previously wounded. Sydney was killed in action the 18 Sep 1918. The battalion was advancing on German positions on this day and the War Diary notes that they had been subjected to “heavy gas bombardment” in the morning and later heavy machine fire. He was awarded the War and Victory Medals. He is buried at the Gauche Wood Cemetery at Villers Guislain in France.
Sydney is commemorated today on the Hengate War Memorial and the East Riding Memorial in Beverley Minster. He is also listed on the Keldgate Street Shrine. In Queensgate Cemetery, Beverley he is commemorated on his parents headstone.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |