Sydney Davies was born on 23rd July 1896 in Moore and baptised on 24th January1904 at Daresbury. He was the younger son of William Parker Davies (born Chester) and his wife Fanny Elizabeth (nee Neate) who was born in Malmesbury in Wiltshire.
Sadly his father died in August 1897, leaving a widow and four children.
In 1901 Sydney was living with his mother and three siblings in wooden buildings on Moss Brow in Moore. These wooden buildings had been built for workers building the Manchester Ship Canal. His siblings were Mary (10), William Charles (9) and Annie Elizabeth (7). His mother was employed as a charwoman and seamstress.
Ten years later they had moved to Factory Yard in Hatton and Annie Elizabeth had left home. Mary and William Charles were still there and Sydney, now 14 years old, was employed as a corn miller’s assistant.
Sydney served in the Great War as a private in the 67th Machine Gun Corps, with the service number SA 59267. It is not known where he served. He was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. He was finally discharged on 18th May 1919 and returned to Hatton, as did his brother William Charles, who also served.
In the summer of 1922 Sydney married Nellie Jane Woolham and they had a daughter Freda M. and a son Sydney in the next couple of years, having moved to the St. Helens area.
The 1939 Register showed them as living at 1, Rennie Avenue, St. Helens and Sydney was employed as a foreman gardener with the St. Helens Council Parks Department. Later, they would move to a flat in Southport, but eventually moved back to St. Helens where Sydney died on 26th July 1951. He predeceased Nellie by 10 years.
Sydney Davies was 55 years of age.