206634 Cpl. Sidney Arthur O'Dell British Army 26th Btn. Royal Fusiliers from:Walthamstow, London My grandfather, Sidney A. O'Dell of Walthamstow, London, served in the Army Pay Corps during the first years of WW1. After war broke out in 1914 he tried to enlist into Kitchener's Army but was rejected on account of his flat feet, and the fact that he was a married man with a child. Instead he served in the Army Pay Corps for around two years. Later in the war when they relaxed their standards he enlisted in the Royal Fusiliers 26th Battalion in early 1917 and went to France in July 1917 to take part in Passchendale. Later that year his Regiment was sent to North Italy to bolster the Italians against the Austrians, returning to France in February 1918. He was severely wounded in the leg in March 1918 resisting the German offensive and repatriated to England to recover but did not serve in France again.
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