SKELTON - IN - CLEVELAND
IN HISTORY
"WE WILL REMEMBER THEM"

Lance Serjeant SIDNEY GEORGE CRAVEN.

10989 6th Bn, Yorkshire Regiment.

who died, aged 30, on the 21st August 1915.

Son of John and Emily Craven, of Skelton-in-Cleveland, N Yorks.


Helles Memorial, Gallipoli.

At the census of 1901, Sidney, aged 15, was living at 1 Carricks Yard, Skelton.
His mother Emily, who came from Lazenby N Yorks, was already a widow at age 44.
He had two older brothers, James 23, who worked as a labourer on Skelton Castle Estate, Arthur, age 16 and a sister Emily 21.

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.
The fighting and conditions, winter and summer, were horrendous.
The troops were evacuated in January 1916 with 265,000 allied dead.
Sidney Craven was one of these and seems to have been killed very early in the futile expedition.

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.
There are 20,837 names listed on the memorial:
The soldiers of United Kingdom and Indian forces named here died in operations throughout the peninsula or were lost or buried at sea.
The Helles Memorial stands on the tip of the Gallipoli Peninsula and takes the form of an obelisk over 30 metres high that can be seen by ships passing through the Dardanelles.

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