Notes
The Bradford Grammar School website (see References) states: 'The Buckley family originated in Lancashire and moved to Manningham, Bradford around 1890. Robert E. Buckley was a cotton goods salesman from Salford, which may explain how he met Helena
Constantine Butcher whose father was a draper in Chorley. They married in 1880 although she was Robert’s junior by nine years. Sidney was their second child and in all they had two sons and three daughters. In Bradford Robert worked as the cashier to a ‘Silk Worsted Mill’, probably Lister’s, until he retired. Both his sons went to Bradford Grammar School, Herbert the elder from 1893 to 1897 and Sidney from 1897 to 1902. He won an honourable mention for the prize for Third Modern (1899), but he struggled when promoted straight into Fifth Modern. At different points of his school career he showed aptitude in a number of subjects, however his results suggest flagging interest and he left in summer 1902 after taking his Lower Certificate, by which time he was nearly seventeen. He went to work for a woollen cloth merchant and continued to live with his family on Leylands Lane, Heaton, until in 1909 he married Barbara Shewan. Her father had given up farm labour in Aberdeenshire to move to Bradford in the 1870s to work as a railway clerk. While Sidney’s family were Anglicans, Barbara’s were Presbyterians so the marriage was at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church on Infirmary Street. They had one child, James Edward Buckley, born in August 1910. They
lived at Cornwall Place off Manningham Lane.
After school Sidney had served with the ‘Bradford Rifles’, the local Volunteers, from 1904-1906 but he did not renew his enlistment, and when the war began he did not volunteer. In June 1916 he was enrolled for General Service under the Military Service Acts, and he was called up in December. He was posted to the 2nd Artists Rifles (2/28th London Regiment) at Hare Hall, Romford in Essex as Private 9943 (renumbered 766507). As this was an O.T.C. it
is likely he was already intending to seek a commission. In April 1917 Buckley was ordered to
join 15th Officer Training Battalion, in the same camp. Although he expressed a preference for the Artillery he was commissioned into the South Staffordshire Regiment.
Second Lieutenant Buckley crossed to France on 11th October 1917. Although he was commissioned into the 1/5th Battalion, in France he was attached to the 2nd Battalion (part of 6th Infantry Brigade, 2nd Division) - he may have been one of the four officers who arrived during October - and subsequently to the brigade Trench Mortar Battery. The occasion for the latter may have been the loss of half its 3-inch Stokes guns and crews in fierce fighting holding off the German attack west of Cambrai on 30th November-2nd December. He was reportedly wounded in February, but had returned to his unit by March.
When the German Spring Offensive began, 6th Brigade were moved forward from reserve into support in the Green Line on 22nd March as the Germans broke through the main British defence line. Four mortars were positioned to cover the front line battalions and to provide covering fire in event of a withdrawal. On the morning of 24th March the first German attack was held, but a heavier assault in the afternoon could not be stemmed. The brigade fell back several miles and what happened to the four mortars and their teams, Buckley among them, was unknown. For a year his family hoped he was a prisoner. It was only when one of his men was released from German captivity that he confirmed he had seen Buckley killed. His name is on the Arras Memorial to the Missing.'