Sidney Ernest TATE

GEDCOM Note

!BIOGRAPHY: Sidney Ernest Tate (Sid) was the 5th child to Alfred Alexander and Mary Ann Tate, born at their home at 2 Cambrian Terrace, Harders Road, Peckham SE London at 9.30 pm on 18th December 1880. At 5 years of age he travelled with his family to start a new life in Australia. His early years were spent in High Street Carlton, in Sydney's south, presumably going to school and attending church at the Carlton Baptist Church. As a teenager he showed aptitude with tools and gained experience in labouring jobs, particularly in the building trade. He also worked as a steward aboard Innaminka, a vessel which traded along the east coast of Australia, in two separate periods in 1903 see Innaminka discharge papers]. Photos also indicate that he may have spent some time working in sugar cane fields in Queensland. By 1908 he was working in western Sydney, living at Toongabbie, and had built a house at Seven Hills (near the railway station) and was working on one at Westmead. He had also met Ellen Elizabeth Davies (Nell), possibly through her uncle, Norman Knight, and was married on the 2nd of January (his parent's 38th wedding anniversary) by the Baptist minister at Rydalmere. Nell's mother, Annie, had moved the family from Ashfield after her husband died, to be with her parents in the Dundas Valley. Sid and Nell lived for a while at Seven Hills in a cottage named Taunton (a link to the Tate's Somerset roots) where their first son, David, was born. When the house at 9 Pye St. (Mays Hill) Westmead was completed, they moved there and were living there when their second son, Ernie, arrived in 1913. Nell became ill over the next year due to diabetes, and with no treatment or cure in those days, she died on January 18, 1915 and was buried in Rookwood Cemetery the next day. Sid also bought the plot next to Nell for himself, but was not destined to use it. With his world torn apart and the whole world in turmoil with World War 1, Sid applied to join the AIF and go to war. In July 1915, however, he was knocked back due to an eyesight deficiency. The war was not going well for the Allies, and with the death toll growing quickly standards were relaxed by mid-1916 and Sid re-applied and was accepted into the 21st. Battalion AIF on the 4th September. The Davies and Knight families helped look after Dave and Ernie after their mother's death and there was some antagonism when Sid's parents and Daisy moved down to Westmead from Katoomba to take over their upbringing, when Sid left as a soldier. Private Sid Tate [No. 6140 21st Batt. AIF] was given some training at Dubbo before leaving Sydney on the troopship SS Afric on 3 Nov 1916 and arriving in Plymouth on 9 Jan 1917 via Durban, Cape Town, and Dakar (Sierra Leone)- a trip of about 70 days. Sid commented in his diary on New Years Day: "The weather is colder and rougher than it has been, just as the year promises to be, I suppose - more full of trouble and danger and hardships generally than the last. Thought the last had its fair share." Sid met up with his nephew William (Will) Tate, visited relatives in London and trained near Salisbury, before travelling to France and joining the Battalion on April 1 near Albert on the Somme. Although Sid saw some action and close calls, this Front stagnated during the summer of 1917 and in late July the Battalion was moved by train to St. Omer and then into the front at Ypres [Belgium]. Often under fire, Sid's activities involved attacks on the line (took prisoners once), digging trenches, building stables and general guard duty. Cold and wet most of the time - contracted trench fever (pains in the legs) through November. Moved to the catacombs under Hill 63 over the Christmas period and into January 1918. Sid had leave from 21 Jan 1918 and went to England - visited relatives in London, Bristol and Wells, including the graves of his Grandparents in Wells. He rejoined the Battalion on 09 Feb and returned to the catacombs in Belgium - close call with pineapple bomb (20 Mar). During this time the Germans had taken back much of the territory lost in 1917 NE of Amiens, so the 21st Battalion was moved back into this area arriving 05 Apr. Sid was soon on the main front, now between Amiens and Albert, and had a lot of close action, including successful raids taking prisoners. The battles continued for 4 months with only minimal changes in position, but the effort took a toll on the Germans and when a determined push was undertaken along the Somme from Villers Brettenaux in early August, the Germans retreated with very few counter attacks. It was, however, at the start of this Allied effort that Sid was hit with a bullet to the head on 08 Aug and was taken to Hospital 21, near Boulogne, but died the next day. He was buried in the British Terluncthum Cemetery north of Boulogne.