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Private Sydney Charles Weeks, 1/1st Kent Battalion – one of 5 brothers to serve, 2 dying

06/07/2026
First World War Army United Kingdom KIRKEE 1914-1918 MEMORIAL
By Mark Bailey
Rank
Private
Name
SIDNEY CHARLES WEEKS
Regiment
Kent Cyclist Battalion
Date of Death
Died 26 September 1918
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Sydney Charles Weeks was born in 1894 at Plymouth, one of nine children of William, a mason, and Jane Weeks, who had moved to East Street in Bovey Tracey by 1901. He was educated at the Church School, had been a bellringer and worked as an apprentice for William Pring, the East Street tailor.
Sydney and his older brother Edward enlisted in the 1/1st Kent Cyclist (Reserve) Battalion at Tonbridge on 23 November 1914. The unit was reorganised as an infantry battalion in December 1915, losing its cyclist designation, and sailed for India on 8 February the following year. In September 1918 he was admitted to Bombay Military Hospital with Malaria, dying four days later on 26 September 1918 (see afternote below).
Sydney is commemorated on the Kirkee 1914-1918 Memorial near Poona in India, having been one of the 629 servicemen whose remains were transferred there from Bombay (Sewri) Cemetery in 1962, and on the 1/1st Kent Battalion memorial plaque in Canterbury Cathedral. He is also commemorated on the parish church and civic war memorials at Bovey Tracey. The administration of his estate, valued at £236 10s 7d, was granted to his father.
Bovey Tracey town cross, hung with the town’s original Great War roll of honour boards, decorated for Peace Day in July 1919. It was later converted to the town war memorial that was unveiled on 11 September 1921 (copyright unknown)
Four of Sydney’s five brothers also joined the Army during the Great War. Older brothers William and Edward served in the Machine Gun Corps and 1st Kent Battalion (later transferring to the Royal Army Medical Corps) respectively. His younger brothers Arthur and Alfred were in the Royal Field Artillery and Hampshire Regiment (later transferring to the Royal Berkshire Regiment) respectively, Arthur being killed in action in 1918.
Sydney Weeks’s name, just below that of his brother Arthur, on Bovey Tracey’s war memorial. Above them are the Tremlett brothers, Charles and Thomas (copyright Mark Bailey)

Afternote: although Sydney’s date of death is shown as 26 September 1918 in the National Probate Calendar and military records, an entry in his service record gives it as 22 September and both war memorials at Bovey Tracey show it as 24 September. 26 September is believed to be the correct date. His rank on the Bovey Tracey war memorials is corporal. There is no corroboration for this in military records but he may have held it on a temporary basis at some time during his army service.

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