BEETON, Sidney Edward


No.15766, Private, Sidney Edward BEETON
Aged 21


11th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment
Killed in Action on Saturday, 1st July 1916


Sidney Edward BEETON was born in Balsham (Linton Q4-1894 3B:487) son of Arthur and Ada BEETON (née KIDMAN).

1901 census...Aged 6, he was at High Street, Little Corner, Balsham with his father Arthur BEETON [30] stockman on farm; mother Ada [28] born Linton; brothers Arthur H [8] and Albert E. [2]. All except his mother were born in Balsham.

1911 census...Aged 16, a farm labourer, he was at Nine Chimneys Lane, Little Corner, Balsham with his parents (father now under gamekeeper); brothers Arthur Horace (farm labourer), Albert Edward and Leslie Edward [6-6-1906] born Balsham. it seems another brother, Eric Claude, was born in Balsham on 10th November 1911. His family were still at Little Corner on the pension card (1918)


He enlisted in Balsham. The 11th Suffolk were at times referred to as the Cambridgeshires. This was due to the fact that volunteering stretched the resources at Bury St Edmunds so much in 1914 that a camp was set up in Cambridge in order that men from the Fens could enlist there. This eventually led to the formation of the 11th Battalion
At the start of the Battle of the Somme they were part of 34th Division, 101st Brigade.

The war diary for the first day of the Battle of the Somme is extensive, but in summary the 11th Suffolks started at Becourt Wood and at 7:30 am together with the 15th Royal Scots started their attack, following the 10th Lincolns on the left of the brigade near La Boiselle. The Germans were in un-suspected strength and within half an hour the situation became really grim, the battle being virtually over.
Crossing Sausage Valley they encountered a new aspect of the war, flamethrowers being used in a defensive capacity from the Sausage Redoubt.However they battled on in small groups, but by the 4th, when relieved, they had sustained 601 casualties, the heaviest of any battalion in the division.

Sidney was found in front of Sausage Valley, identified by his disc and research slip, and moved to Ovillers in 1920. It is likely the "research slip" referred to contained details to assist identification when Sidney was originally buried. Thousands of these burials were not finally discovered and the casualty properly interred in a military cemetery for many years. Even today, 2017, more bodies are discovered each year as a result of cultivation, development of new roads/railways, industrial estates, all along the Western Front.


photo courtesy his nephew Tony Beeton







photo: Rodney Gibson



Sidney Beeton is buried in Ovillers Military Cemetery grave 12:X:5

click here to go to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website for full cemetery/memorial details


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