Ashtead War Memorials - WWI - Pte Sydney Charles Heywood
20th Bn, Royal Fusiliers

Charles Henry B Heywood [born Coldridge, Devon, registered Crediton 12/1866] married Lily Emily Cutts [born Dorking registered as Emily L. H. ? 9/1866] for the event to be registered at Dorking in the June Quarter of 1893. The birth of their son Sydney Charles Heywood took place in Kingston upon Thames two years later [registered Kingston 6/1895]

In the 1901 Census the family were at 156 London Road, Norbiton, where the father, Charles, managed a Grocer’s store. No other children were mentioned but a number of Grocer's Assistants boarded with them. They remained in the Kingston area until at least 1911.

In a street directory for Ashtead relating to 1914, however, the name of Charles Hy. Heywood, provision merchant, appears on the north side of The Street, two doors west of Ashtead Motor Works.

Soldiers who died in the Great War records that Sydney Heywood had been living in London when he enlisted, during 1915, for War Service with 20th (Service) Battalion), 3rd Public Schools, Royal Fusiliers, which had been formed at Epsom on 11 September 1914. On the 7 November 1915, the 20th Bn. Royal Fusiliers was transferred to 19th Brigade, 33rd Division, and PS 8706 S. C. Heywood arrived in France to join it a week later.

This was a time of trench warfare prior to the Battle of the Somme. Sir Douglas Haig’s first despatch as British Commander-in Chief, dated 19 May 1916, provides some idea of the conditions: -

Artillery and snipers are practically never silent, patrols are out in front of the lines every night, and heavy bombardments by the artillery of one or both sides take place daily in various parts of the line. Below ground there is continual mining and counter-mining, which, by the ever-present threat of sudden explosion and the uncertainty as to when and where it will take place, causes perhaps a more constant strain than any other form of warfare.
http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/haigsteloidespatch.htm

Sydney Heywood was killed in action on 17 May 1916.

[A Diary kept by Pvt. J. N. Dykes covering his active service with 20th Bn. Royal Fusiliers (19th Brigade, 33rd Division) between January and July 1916 is archived in the Imperial War Museum at IWM 76/171/1]

A Medal Index Card for S. C. Heywood records that Mr C. H. Heywood applied for his late son’s 1915 Star, on 12 March 1919, from High Street, Ashtead, Surrey. Meredith Worsfold’s booklet Ashtead, The Street in the 1920s, mentions the location of Heywoods the Grocers between Woodfield Lane and The Marld: Heywoods Stores also appears amongst the village shops for 1938/9 listed in A History of Ashtead on page 134. The death of Charles H B Heywood, aged 60, was registered at Epsom 9/1927. Possibly the business was continued by his widow, Lily.

text: Brian Bouchard: if you can add to this page please contact the editor
page added 13 Mar 2009: updated 14 Mar 09: 28 Nov 17