SYDNEY MARSHALL RAYFIELD

RANK: Private.

SERVICE NUMBER: 15/745

REGIMENT: "C" Coy 15th Bn.West Yorkshire Regiment Prince of Wales's Own(Leeds Pals)

BORN: Kirkstall Leeds.

ENLISTED: Leeds.

RESIDENCE. Cross Gates Leeds.

GAVE HIS LIFE: 01/07/1916.

AGED: 24.

CEMETERY: Euston Road Cemetery Colincamps a village 11km north of Albert.

PANEL: I. A. 26.

LEEDS MODERN: Unknown.

Sydney was the son of Thomas a Bank Clerk Born Leeds 1854 and Mary Ann Farrington Born Leeds 1856, they married at Leeds in 1880.

Sydney left Leeds boys Modern and worked as a Clerk at one of the many papers in Leeds at the time "Yorkshire Evening Post" which is the city's only paper today. then onto the Beckett's Bank on Park Row in Leeds.

Sydney enlisted into the 15th Bn West Yorkshire Regiment in september 1915 and trained at Colsterdale and Salisbury.

Like many old Leeds Modernians Sydney was sent to Egypt in December 1915 and then onto France in early 1916.

Sydney lost his life with many of his pals on the morning of July 1st 1916 the Battle for Albert, Sydney lays in rest at Euston Road Cemetery he was probably found like many other men a year later when the Leeds Pals returned to the scene of that fatefull morning.

The CWGC shows the following details.

"Son of Mary. A. Rayfield, of 37, Chestnut Avenue, Crossgates, Leeds, and the late Thomas Rayfield. Native of Kirkstall, Leeds."