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7528 1st Battalion, Suffolk Regiment
Sidney Binks was born in Sudbury around 1887, the youngest of five children of John and Maria Binks. His father was employed as a pig dealer and the family lived at 8 Straw Lane, before later moving to 16 Church Walk.
Sidney was employed as a domestic gardener before he enlisted in the early 1900s as a regular soldier serving with the Suffolk Regiment. He trained at the Bury St. Edmunds Depot before going overseas to Malta, then to Egypt to Alexandra and Cairo. During his service he showed his prowess as a distance runner representing D Company and always among the winners. In 1911 he was stationed at Mustapha Pasha Barracks in Alexandria, Egypt.
When war was declared Sidney was with the battalion in Khartoum in the Sudan. The battalion, which formed part of 84th Brigade, 28th Division landed in France at Le Havre in January 1915 and took over trenches in Belgium between the Ypres – Combines Canal and Hill 60 on 4 February 1915. By the end of the month the battalion had already suffered 80 casualties.
Sidney saw action at the Second Battle of Ypres (22 April – 25 May 1915) when the first gas attacks were launched by the Germans on 22 April 1915. On 4 May the battalion withdrew to the Frezenberg Ridge, they had lost 400 men, killed, missing or wounded and the rest of the battalion was on the point of exhaustion. The next day they were heavily shelled again and the headquarters dugout was hit. Two men were killed one of which was Sidney. By nightfall on 8 May the battalion ceased to exist such were the casualties.
Sidney died on 5 May 1915. There is no known grave and he is remembered on the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres, Belgium. He was awarded the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.
A Cross of Remembrance was laid at the Menin Gate in April 2006, April 2009 and October 2012.
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