208621 Pte. Sidney Charles McMullen British Army 2nd Battalion, A coy. Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders from:Perivale, Middlesex. (d.16th Jun 1941) Private Sidney Charles McMullen was born in 1915, the youngest son of five siblings. I don't know the name of the ship he sailed on but Sidney states in his letter home from HM Ships "touched lucky on board a 20,000 tonner her first trip as a troop ship. We sleep 6 to a cabin, it has a smashing bathroom just for ourselves with ultra modern fittings and best of all we sleep on sprung mattresses. It's just like a floating hotel. You can get a 1lb of tobacco for 7/6d and the panelling is all oak." At the time of writing they had just dropped anchor. His next letter states that was just their first port of call and they had another 4 weeks to go and he was getting fed up with the voyage.
Sid talked about the port they visited, how they had stayed for 48 hours. He said it was a pretty place with mountains in the background and little red-topped houses dotted about in the valley. Dark skinned natives came out in little boats loaded with fruit, and if you threw a penny in the water they would dive down to get it. At night the lights of the town were all lit up and Sid said "you couldn't see a prettier sight if you wished to". At their second port of call they were allowed onshore, it was very hot. Sid found a Woolworths and went inside for an iced drink where Sid found an old friend from "Palm" who had been in the same convoy all along.
On arrival at his destination Sid writes "it's a pretty desolate hole, and nothing much happens where we are. Around the back of us are big rocky hills, we went for a walk up one, every step we took in the sand we slid back two. It took all the go out of you and we were nearly creased up by the time we got to the top."
Sidney was killed in action on 16th June 1941 and is buried at the Halfaya-Sollum War Cemetery. He was a single young man just 26 years old and much loved by his family.
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