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SKELTON - IN - CLEVELAND
IN HISTORY
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"WE WILL REMEMBER THEM"
10989 Lance Serjeant SIDNEY GEORGE CRAVEN
6th Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment.
Died, aged 30, on the 21st August 1915.
Born at Skelton in Cleveland.
Son of Emily and the late John Craven, of Skelton-in-Cleveland, N Yorks.
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Helles Memorial, Gallipoli.
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FAMILY:-
1881. Sidney's parents are living at 58 High St, Skelton, N Yorks.
His father, John, age 29, is an Ironstone Miner and had been born in Market Weighton, Yorks.
His mother, Emily, age 25, was born Lazenby, N Yorks.
They already had 6 children- Mary E, 7, John T, 6, Jane A, 5, James H, 3, Emily E, 1 and William F, 5 months.
1901. Sidney, aged 15, has arrived and was living at 1 Carricks Yard, Skelton.
His mother Emily, who was born at Lazenby N Yorks, was now a widow at the age of 44. She had had 8 children and 7 were still living.
He had two older brothers at home James 23, who worked as a labourer on Skelton Castle Estate and Arthur, age 16.
And sister Emily 21.
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1911 census. Sydney, age 25, is working as a House Painter.
He is still single and the only one still at 1 Carricks Yars, supporting his widowed mother.
WAR SITUATION:-
The 6th Bn, Yorkshire Regiment were formed at Richmond on the 25th August 1914.
They were attached to 32nd Brigade, part of the 11th (Northern) Division.
It was formed of volunteers, under the care of the War Office.
Initially without equipment or arms of any kind, the recruits were judged to be ready by late Spring 1915, and it was ordered to reinforce the beleagured garrison on Gallipoli.
1 July 1915 : sailed from Liverpool, landing Alexandria, and on to Mudros, completing concentration by 28 July 1915.
Sidney was a Volunteer for service in the War.
His Medal Card records that he arrived in the "Balkans" on the 14th July 1915.
Troops had been landed at Suvla Bay on the 6th August 1915 with great losses.
The Turks held the high ground surrounding them and pinned them down with shrapnel and sniper fire.
On the 21st, the day of Sidney's death 3 Divisions attempted to take Scimitar Hill.
It was a costly failure, with "severe and bloody fighting" far into the night with some Turkish trenches lost and retaken twice.
The British lost 5,300 men out of 14,300.
In the end all the troops were evacuated in January 1916 with 265,000 allied dead.
MEMORIAL
The Helles Memorial is one of five Memorials to the Missing for Commonwealth troops who lost their lives in the
eight month-long Gallipoli campaign and who have no known grave.
It commemorates 20,837 men and stands on the tip of the Gallipoli Peninsula, taking the form of an obelisk over 30 metres high that can be seen by ships passing through the Dardanelles.
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