2nd Lieutenant Sidney Roger West
Wiltshire Regiment (Ex-Sgt 16th Lancers)

Son of Henry and Sarah West of Meadow Farm, Le Foulon, Guernsey

Unfortunately his war records are amongst those lost in the burnt records. You cansee from his medal card he had quite an interesting record. He joined the 16th Lancers in 1906 and served in Ulster before being sent to Sandhurst as a training sergeant. He was an instructor in horsemanship and musketry (having been regimental shot three years running). He was sent to the Western Front in 1915 and was instructing Indian officers for 8 months. He was gazetted 2nd Lt in the field and went to serve in the Wiltshire regiment. I have a very large and interesting photograph of a passing out company at Sandhurst in September 1914. All present are named beneath and they include Oswald Moseley, who went on of course to lead the black shirts. There is a picture of hi in the Guernsey weekly press with an article about being gazetted on the 15.6.18.

His father Henry West was well known as a gamekeeper, farmer and was the "Bailiff" of Herm for Count Blucher, where his duties included keeping thirsty quarrymen away from the Mermaid. The West family originated from Wiltshire and came to Guernsey in about 1870, the same regiment which Sidney eventually joined, no doubt because of family connections.

Sidney was clearly very lucky to survive the war, primarily because he was a regular soldier and was a skilled instructor, albeit his service took him to the Somme amongst other places (at one time as quartermaster of a tunnelling company), where he was buried in a trench for 24 hours. His son (my grandfather Roger) said he was forever changed as a result of the war.

Mark Helyar