Born in 1891 at Limehouse, son of Samuel (Warehouseman) and Annie Sykes. 1891: With his family at 6 York Square, Ratcliffe. 1901: With his family at 4 Oakdale Terrace, Oakdale Road, South Woodford. 1911: Described as a Hospital Clerk, he was listed as a patient in the Jubilee Hospital, Broomhill Road, Woodford Green. The family home was later 38 Maybank Road. He joined the Army on 4th December 1915.
On the first day of the Battle of the Somme, some British forces were to mount a diversionary attack on the Gommecourt Salient. Unfortunately, like the main attack this diversion cost many lives, not least among those men funneling through gaps in the German barbed wire who fell easy victims to machine guns. Frederick Sykes was among many that day whose death was “presumed” because no trace of them was subsequently found.
He was a keen athlete competing in various sports with the Harrier Section of Woodford Green Men’s Club, of which he was a member and an official. His name appears in the Woodford Times. On 2nd January 1912 he won the Woodford Green Men's Club 10 Miles Championship, and at Southend during the following year on 19th July 1913, he won the Essex County Championship Half Mile Flat race.
He is therefore believed to be the “F.S. Sykes” named on the Club war memorial, and who was commemorated in the Roll of Honour at the Tower of London during the evening of 26th October 2014.
Research by Adrian Lee, Local Historian
Sources:
Ancestry.com
Woodford Times
Family “Somme Shrouds” CWGC entry