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World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great 1914 1918 first battalion regiment
Pte. Sydney Frank Stephens MiD.
British Army 2nd Battalion Devonshire Regiment
from:Aston, Warwickshire
Sydney Frank Stephens was born in 1883 and baptised 13th May 1883.
He was the youngest son of Henry Stephens, a baker and grandson of a farmer. He had a love of and a way with horses. Horses were used by his father's bakery in Aston, West Midlands for the delivery of bread. In the early 1900's he fell in love with Myra De Saulles the widow of Samuel De Saulles the artist to the mint and designer of several medals. His father did not approve and sent him to Australia (to forget her) where he once painted the gasometer in Sydney harbour using rope and crepe sandals with another chap he had met in the labour bank queue. His love did not die and he earned enough money to return and married Myra and is mentioned in the 1911 census (Myra is listed as aged 40).
He lived for a while in London. That is possibly where he enlisted for the war. We do not know for certain his exploits during the war but we do have his dog tags which show "Devons 69216" and his medal card which according to the regimental museum suggests that he may have been in the 2nd Battalion. We the family were lead to believe he was in a yeomanry regiment (the regimental museum doubts this but this is what we were told)
The family stories from my mother are as follows, He took his father's best horse with him, the horse was called Gerry. The horse had been imported from Ireland and then bought. During basic training he distinguished himself with this horse. It was very fast and won various races. Sydney was made an assistant farrier (although not qualified pre war) he was more than competent removing shoes and frost nailing horses. He was also very good at wrangling and soothing difficult horses. (the regimental museum believes he may have been attached to a transport section of the 2nd Battalion).
He generally kept himself out of trouble until 1917/18. A family member (possibly his sister) died during the flu epidemic in England. He starts volunteering for things. He and another man took 40 mules at night to resupply some cut off troops over no man's land then through a river to get to the front line. Then returned safely. We were always told that for this he received a Mention in Despatched, but have never been able to confirm this.
One day, a friend called Cooky, who worked in the canteen, had been talking to Sydney, then Cooky returned to the canteen, a few minutes later the canteen took a direct hit. Sydney did not see Cooky again.
At some point he was gassed and always had weak lungs (but smoked heavily also). After the Armistice Sydney returned home with his horse (this is probably unlikely but this is what we were told). On returning to his father, one of his father's first comments was "You have ruined that horse!"
A while after the war during a family business meeting in the house above the bakery, a window cleaner climbs to the window and Sydney realises it was Cooky. They went and got drunk together. Cooky had apparently gone back to the canteen and been sent straight back out with a cauldron of cooked potatoes to deliver. After the canteen was destroyed he was quickly re-assigned to another unit.
Myra died 27th Feb 1932 they had no children. Sydney remarried a year later to Lillian Simms and had two daughters, who both continued with his love of horses. He carried on baking with a shop in Lowesmoor Worcester and was the last horse drawn bakery delivery in Worcester until he retired. He died in 1967 and was survived by his 2nd wife Lillian and his two daughters.
His family are very grateful that he served and survived when others did not and to commemorate the end of the war to end all wars are taking a horse from Cambrai to Mons in Sept 2018 to take part in the 100km "Pursuit to Mons" in a copy of his uniform and will stop at Tertre where the Devons received news of the Armistice.
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