Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Books; was reported missing after the fighting on 31 Oct. 1914, and is now assumed to have been killed in action on or about that date; _m._ =SILK, JOSEPH=, Private, No. G. 14063, 3rd Battn. Middlesex Regt.; served with the Expeditionary Force in France; killed in action, 23 April, 1915. =SILK, NORMAN GALBRAITH=, Lieut., 2nd Battn. South Wales Borderers, only child of Fleet-Paymaster Ernest Edwin Silk, R.N., Royal Naval Depôt, Sheerness, by his wife, Isabel Maud, dau. of Capt. Ernest C. Wilford, late 65th Regt.; _b._ Rushbrook. co. Cork, 30 April, 1895; educ. Eastman's, Southsea; Cheltenham College (Newick House), and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst (Jan. 1913 to Feb. 1914); gazetted 2nd Lieut., 1st South Wales Borderers, 24 Feb. 1914, and promoted Lieut. 15 Nov. 1914; went to France with his battn. at the outbreak of war; served through the retreat from Mons, and the Battles of the Aisne, the Marne, and Ypres, where he was wounded in Nov., and invalided home; joined the 2nd Battn. of his regt. on recovery in Feb. 1915, and left England with it for the Near East in March; took part in the landing at Sedd-ul-Bahr on 25 April, and in the subsequent fighting on the Gallipoli Peninsula, and was killed in action there, 9 June, 1915; _unm._ The colonel commanding South Wales Borderers wrote: "To me, as a commanding officer, he is a very great loss. He had proved himself to be a most gallant and capable officer and as devoted to his men as they were to him. He was always bright and cheerful, and always only too keen to be ever right at the front, and I know that had he lived he must have made a name for himself." [Illustration: =Norman Galbraith Silk.=] =SILKSTONE, BERT=, Private, No. 9570, 1st Battn. Coldstream Guards, _s._ of William Silkstone, of 103, Padget Street, Brightside, Sheffield; _b._ co. York; served with the Expeditionary Force in France, etc.; killed in action, 4 Oct. 1914. =SILLETT, ERNEST HENRY=, A.B. (R.F.R., Ch. B. 1047), 173052, H.M.S. Cressy; lost in action in the North Sea, 22 Sept. 1914. =CIVILIAN-SILLS, STEPHEN=, Canteen Assistant, H.M.S. Hogue; lost in action in the North Sea, 22 Sept. 1914. =SILVER, CHARLES=, Private, No. G. 2053, 2nd Battn. East Surrey Regt.; served with the Expeditionary Force in France, etc.; killed in action, 12 March, 1915. =SILVESTER, ALFRED FERDINAND=, Rifleman, No. 2895, 16th Battn. (Queen's Westminster Rifles) The London Regt. (T.F.), 2nd _s._ of William Keeley Silvester, of 34B, Lavender Sweep, Clapham Common, S.W., Minister in the Catholic Apostolic Church, by his wife, Julia, dau. of Joseph Simpson; _b._ London, 30 Dec. 1887; was a Confidential Clerk in a City Bank; joined the Queen's Westminster Rifles in 1909; completed his term of service in 1913, but volunteered and rejoined after the outbreak of war, 2 Sept. 1914; went to France, 24 Jan. 1915, and died in the Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley, 14 March, 1915, of wounds received in action at Houplines, near Armentières, on the 6th; _unm._ [Illustration: =Alfred Ferdinand Silvester.=] =SILVESTER, ANSON LLOYD=, Lieut., 2nd Battn. Royal Sussex Regt., elder _s._ of the Rev. James Silvester, M.A., F.R. Hist. Socy., Vicar of Great Clacton and Little Holland, Clacton-on-Sea, author of "The Spiritual Year," "A Century of Sonnets," and other works, and Editor of "The Lord's Portion," by his wife, Constance Ellen, formerly Sister Lloyd of H.M. Nursing Service, dau. of William Lloyd, of the General Post Office [Baronet coll.]; _b._ Walcot, Bath, where his father was senior curate of the parish, 11 Dec. 1888; educ. Trent College, co. Derby, where he distinguished himself in study and sport, becoming Victor Ludorum of the school, and in 1908 won an Exhibition in Modern History at Jesus College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in the Honours School of Modern History in 1912, with 2nd Class Honours. At Oxford he belonged to the Officers' Training Corps, as a member of which he was one of the guard of honour at the funeral of His Majesty King Edward VII and at the Coronation of His Majesty King George V, and afterwards joined the 9th Royal Sussex Regt. Special Reserve, being gazetted 2nd Lieut. 6 Sept. 1913. He spent some time in Germany in the spring of 1914, to obtain a thorough proficiency in German, having also studied French, with a view to an appointment in H.M. Consular service, for which he had received the necessary nomination. He was engaged in volunteer Y.M.C.A. camp work when the war broke out, and on mobilisation he was summoned to join his regt. at Chichester. For some time he was on duty at Dover, but went to the Front in Sept. 1914, with five other officers of his regt., receiving leave of absence for a few days, after terrible experience in the trenches; and returning to the Front at the end of Nov. He fell in action, while bravely leading forward his men to recapture a position the Germans had taken the same day at Cuinchy, near La Bassée, on the night of 31 Dec. 1914; _unm._ His body was not recovered until 12 Jan., when he was buried in the cemetery at Cuinchy. W. R. Smethurst, his platoon Sergt., wrote: "We had some very rough times together, shared each other's rations, and always the same dug out during that awful time we had last October at Ypres. About that time he contracted that bad cough that he had, and I tried many a time to get him to go to hospital, but he would not. When he went on leave I never expected that he would come back to us again as he really was not fit," and referring to his death: "We crept up to 30 yards of them (the Germans) when they opened on us a terrific fire both from machine guns and rifles. Your son fell practically at the first shot, and so did 11 men out of 2. I spoke to Mr. Silvester and asked him if he was badly hit. He did not answer my question but ordered me to take the men away and retire back to our old position. He must have expired almost immediately." [Illustration: =Anson Lloyd Silvester.=] =SILVESTER, JOHN=, A.B. (R.F.R., B. 6976), 191889, H.M.S. Hawke; lost when that ship was torpedoed in the North Sea, 15 Oct. 1914. =SILVERTON, WILLIAM HENRY=, Private, No. 1347, 1st Battn. (Royal Fusiliers), The London Regt. (T.F.), eldest _s._ of the late William James Silverton, by his wife, Alice (14, Appleford Road, North Kensington); _b._ North Kensington, 18 Nov. 1895; educ. Middle Row School there; was a Chemist; joined the Royal Fusiliers in July, 1911; volunteered for foreign service on the outbreak of war in Aug. 1914; went to France, 10 March, 1915, and was killed in action at Fromelles, 9 May, 1915; _unm._ [Illustration: =William Henry Silverton.=] =SIMMONDS, GEORGE HENRY=, A.B. (R.F.R., B. 4910), 159624, H.M.S. Hogue; lost in action in the North Sea, 22 Sept. 1914. =SIMMONDS, RICHARD STANLEY=, Gunner, R.M.A., 11386, H.M.S. Good Hope; lost in action off Coronel, on the coast of Chili, 1 Nov. 1914. =SIMMONS, ALBERT=, Leading Stoker (R.F.R., B. 4165), 291953, H.M.S. Good Hope; lost in action off |