17225 Cpl Sidney Clark, Royal Engineers, 56 Field Company
Arrived overseas: 20 August 1914. Connection: A series of eight postcards. When Sidney Clark attested with the Royal Engineers at Dover on the 17th February 1908, he was a 22-year-old carpenter. He signed up for three years with the colours and nine years on the reserve, all of that colour service being undertaken with 56 Field Company. Three years to the day after he had attested, Sidney was transferred to the Army Reserve, to all intents and purposes a civilian again. His conduct was reported as "Very good. No offence in whole service of three years. He is sober, hardworking, reliable, and thoroughly satisfactory." He was also rated a "superior carpenter." On 5th August 1914, Sidney was mobilised with his old company, arrived in France on the 20th August, and was promptly captured three days later. He would spend the rest of the war as a Prisoner of War. He's in this photo somewhere, almost certainly one of the corporals on the back row, and would have been a...