WW1 Roll of Honour - The Survivors S-Z

He was ordained at the Norfolk Street Wesleyan Chapel, Sheffield on 4 August 1875 and a week later he married Emily at Park Wesleyan Chapel, Sheffield. Alexander was sent to work in Kilsyth, Glasgow, Lanarkshire. Two children were born there, Emily Sarah Elizabeth in 1876 and John Simonson in 1878 but John died later the same year. It was the policy of the Wesleyan Conference to appoint its ministers to stations (posts) annually and to move them to a different circuit (area group) at least every three years, but more frequently if it so chose. Alexander had three further stations before the next census: Snaith, West Riding (1878), Liskeard, Cornwall (1879) Kirkby Stephen and Appelby, Westmorland (1880). Two more children were born in Kirkby Stephen, Lucy Mary in 1881 and William Arthur in 1883.

The next move in July 1883 was to Alston, Cumberland where William Arthur died later that year and a daughter, Florence Hannah, was born in 1885. In July 1886 the family moved again to Melbourne, Derbyshire which was part of the Castle Donnington circuit. Thomas Alexander junior, known as Alec, was born there in 1887. In August 1889 Alexander was moved to the Kettering circuit where he initially held the station at Bridge Road Chapel, Gainsborough but later moved into Kettering itself where the Seed family were living at 66 Rockingham Road in the 1891 Census. Daughter Emily was not with them as she was attending Trinity House School in Southport, Lancashire. The school house was attached to Trinity Wesleyan Chapel, described by John Ruskin as "the most beautiful church in Methodism." 

Frank was born in Kettering on 13 August 1892 and then they were off again to Chertsey, Surrey (August 1893), Liverpool (July 1895) and Tunbridge Wells (August 1896). Alexander was selected for a station at Peterhead, Aberdeenshire in July 1898 but appears to have declined that in favour of a move back to Gainsborough. In the 1901 Census Alexander, Emily and three of the children, Lucy, Florence and Frank were at 134 Bridge Street, Gainsborough. Lucy had become a music teacher. Daughter Emily was a milliner lodging with her employer in Mexborough. Alec was a pupil at Kingswood School in Charlcombe, Bath, Somerset.

In July 1904 Alexander was at first offered a station at Macclesfield, Cheshire but instead asked for permission to 'sit down' (no longer travel) and was given permission to remain in Sheffield's Brunswick Circuit as a supernumerary. He was aged 57 and it was effectively semi-retirement for him. Supernumaries were still expected to contribute to the work of the Church, often in an administrative capacity. Alexander was the translator of several books including Felix Buvet's "A Pioneer of Social Christianity: Count Zinzendorf" (1896) and M. Edmond Scherer's "What is Catholicism?" (1900) but now he had the time to write his own books which included "Brief Biographies of John and Mary Fletcher" (1906) and "Norfolk Street Wesleyan Chapel, Sheffield" (1907). The latter work was greatly praised by the Sheffield Daily Telegraph for the author's powers of investigation and research and his determination to verify every word he wrote.

In the census of 2 April 1911, Alexander, wife Emily and children Florence, Alec and Frank were living at Moorland View, 3 Chatsworth Road. Florence was an elementary school teacher with Sheffield Corporation, Alec was a clerk in a steel works and Frank an assistant librarian in the University of Sheffield. Daughter Emily had married Samuel Waterfall in 1908. Samuel worked for Midland Railway as a porter and later as a ticket examiner. Their son James Alexander had been born a month before the census which showed them living at 142 Rushdale Road, Meersbrook. Lucy had married George Rollett, a house painter and property repairer, in 1909 and they too had a young son, Frank, born 9 months before the census.

On 7 April 1913 Frank's mother Emily died at the age of 63. She was buried at Dore Christ Church two days later after a service at Totley Rise Methodist Church. Alexander remarried less than a year later to Mary Manners in Bishop Auckland, Durham. Although granted a further year as a supernumerary in Sheffield he had chosen instead to accept a station at Pateley Bridge, West Riding. Alexander and Mary lived at Summerbridge near Harrogate. Later that year daughter Lucy also got married. Her husband was Frank Fidler, a commercial traveller, and the marriage took place at St. John the Baptist, Abbeydale on 5 September 1914. 

On 11 December 1915 Frank enlisted in the 3rd Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment. His service record has survived and shows that he had become a bank clerk in civilian life. He was placed on Reserve and not mobilized until 9 February 1916. He was posted to Sunderland for training the following day and promoted to Lance Corporal on 9 August. However, he failed to complete his training programme, spending two months in hospital in Sunderland with a debilitating condition which prevented him from strenuous walking. He was transferred to light duties for several months but after being recalled to training he failed to complete the first route march. Frank was eventually discharged from service on 14 December 1918 under King's Regulation Paragraph 39 (xxva) "Surplus to military requirements (not having suffered impairment since entry into the service)". He gave his intended address on discharge as Westfield, 17 Edward Road, Gainsborough, Lincolnshire. Frank resumed his career with the bank workimg in the local Gainsborough branch.

Alec Seed married Beatrice Marguerite Pogson on 21 August 1918 at St. Peter, Abbeydale. Marguerite was the fourth of five children of Robert Henry Pogson, an employee of Sheffield Banking Company, and his wife Florence Henrietta Charlotte Mallender who had married at St Mary, Worksop on 21 October 1879. Marguerite was a professor of music and Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music. They had twin daughters, Helen and Barbara, on 9 May 1923. Alec became a works manager and later a labour and publicity manager at Samuel Osborn & Co. steelworks. However, he was better known for his contribution to amateur dramatics in Sheffield being an actor, playwright, theatre administrator and theatre correspondent of The Era. He was at times the Chairman of the Sheffield Repertory Theatre and of the Croft House Settlement Operatic Society. 

Rev. Thomas Alexander Seed died on 22 July 1926 at Cotherstone, near Barnard Castle, North Riding. He was aged 79. By then the Sheffield Banking Company had become absorbed into the National Provincial Bank and Frank was working at the same George Street branch as Robert Pogson. In 1939 Frank was living with a housekeeper at 25 Conduit Road, Crookes and working as a cashier and authorised signatory at the High Street branch. He retired on 1 November 1952, aged 60. Frank died on 14 December 1965 at Lodge Moor Hospital and was buried at Abbey Lane Cemetery three days later. He was aged 73 and unmarried. 

Herbert Edward Victor Sibley

Victor Sibley was born in Sheffield in 1895. His father was Edward Sibley who was born in Gloucester in 1867, the sixth of ten children of George Sibley, an engine driver, and his wife Esther White who had married at St. Mary de Lode, Gloucester on 28 April 1860. His mother was Ada Rose West who was born in Bath on 20 January 1867, the second of seven children of Fred West, a publican, and his wife Hannah Cottle who had married at Walcot St Swithin, Somerset on 12 February 1865.

Victor's parents married on 5 August 1890 at St Mark, Lyncombe in Somerset. Edward Sibley was a clerk living at 244 Lancing Road, Highfield but when he came to Sheffield is not known. In the census on 5 April 1891, Edward and Ada were living at 40 Hobart Street, Highfield. He was in the early stages of a career in the City Accountant's Department where he would work for 37 years. A first child, Vera Hilda West, was born on 2 July that year in Bath, where Ada's widowed mother was a nurse. A son Harold Vernon was born in Sheffield on 7 May 1893 and Victor followed on 30 January 1895.

The Sibley Family must have moved to our area in spring 1897 because Vera, Vernon and Victor were admitted to Totley Church School on separate dates between May and September. No address is given for them other than Totley village. On 14 September that year another daughter Frederica Ada Victoria was born in Totley. School records show that the family left Totley in March 1900 and in the census of 30 March 1901 they were living at 266 Sharrow Vale Road, Sheffield. Edward was shown to be a district rate collector. A third daughter Violet Cecily May was born there on 4 May 1901. 

The Sheffield Corporation Act 1900 formally consolidated townships like Attercliffe-cum-Darnall and Brightside Bierlow into Sheffield and extended the City boundaries to include parts of the adjacent parishes of Ecclesfield, Bradfield, Tinsley, Catcliffe, Handsworth, Norton and the Liberty of Beauchief. In December 1901 it was announced that Edward was one of four officials appointed to collect the rate for these new areas. 

We think that the Sibley family returned to our area around 1903. The older children had attended schools at Pomona Street and Hunter's Bar and there is an entry on Freda's school record saying that the family "left town" on 31 March that year. A sixth and final child, Vincent Gordon, was born in Totley on 27 May 1905. Five of them - Vernon was the exception - were baptised together on 16 March 1910 at Dore Christ Church. They ranged in ages between 4 and 18. The parish register shows that the Sibleys were living at Alma Villas, (44-46) Victoria Road, Totley Rise and Edward was an assistant overseer of the poor. The census taken in the following April confirmed these details. Vera was an elementary school teacher with Derbyshire Education Committee. Victor and Freda were at grammar school.

Victor emigrated to Australia aboard the Tyser Line Indrapura which left Tilbury on 14 October 1913 bound for Melbourne. He was aged 17 and intended to work as a farm labourer. Soon afterward his arrival, however, war broke out and Victor enlisted at Melbourne on 19 August 1915 becoming Private number 4318 in the 13/5th Regiment of the Australian Imperial Force. He gave as his next of kin his father who's address was 48 Thirwell Road, Heeley thus indicating that the family had left our area yet again. They would stay at this location until the end of the war.

Victor was posted to join the British Expeditionary Force aboard HMAT Demosthenes which sailed from Melbourne on 29 December 1915. He served firstly in Egypt and then in France disembarking at Marseilles on 4 April 1916. On 27 September 1917 he was designated an Artificer indicating that he had a skilled mechanical or technical ability, in his case probably to do with motor vehicle maintenance as he was later transferred to the 6th Australian Motor Transport Company. He left France on 8 May 1919 and after arriving in England was sent to Sutton Veny, near Warminster in Wiltshire. Spanish influenza was particularly virulent at the time and no fewer than 142 Australian soldiers are buried in Sutton Veny churchyard. Victor survived the epidemic and was demobolised on 17 May 1919 in London. He was later awarded the 1914/15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal. 

He did not immediately return to Australia but instead went to his parents home in Heeley. His father, according to the 1919 White's Directory, was the assistant overseer for Sheffield and Ecclesall Union. His sister Freda had become a teacher in Sheffield having studied at Sheffield Pupil Teaching College between August 1914 to July 1916. 

On 3 January 1921 Victor married Jessie Prosser at St. John's Church, Abbeydale. Jessie was born in Sheffield in 1896, the sixth of eight children of Charles Albert Prosser, a silversmith, and his wife Mary Elizabeth Wright who had married at St. Mathias, Sheffield on 1 October 1882. The Prosser Family lived at Woodbine Cottage, Victoria Road and would have been close neighbours of the Sibleys. Jessie had been a classmate of Freda Sibley at Dronfield Grammar School. Sadly their son David Harry Prosser had been killed in the war and is commemorated on the war memorial at St. John's, Abbeydale. We don't know where Victor and Jessie lived but Edward and Ada had had moved to Old Norton by 9 May 1921 when their daughter Cicely married George Benjamin Smith at St. James Church. On a sad note Vernon Sibley died on 22 October 1921 at the Royal Infirmary, following an operation. He was aged 28 and unmarried.