War Memorial
Sidney Pocock was born around 1897, the son of Charles and Mary Pocock, who made their home at Charcott in Leigh. The 1901 census records the household as a busy one, with three sons and three daughters, and Charles earning his living packing cricket balls. Sidney followed the same trade locally, working for Messrs Duke and Sons, a firm that manufactured cricket balls.
When war broke out, Sidney joined the Royal West Kent Regiment and was later transferred to the King's Royal Rifle Corps. Serving with the 18th Battalion as a Sergeant, with the service number C/6451, he crossed to France in May 1916. He was granted ten days of leave just two months before his death, a final visit home.
On 19 September 1917 Sidney was struck by a shell explosion, and he died from his wounds two days later, on 21 September, at just twenty years of age. His battalion lost forty-eight men that same day. For his service he received one campaign medal.
Having no known grave, he is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial at Ieper in Belgium. His death was reported in The Courier on 5 October 1917. Sidney is remembered on the Leigh War Memorial, the Chiddingstone Causeway War Memorial and the Edenbridge Hospital War Memorial. His brother Ernest, who served with the West Kent Regiment, survived the conflict.