Robert Douglas Sadd

Robert Sadd was a John Lyon School pupil and bank clerk who joined the Honourable Artillery Company, served in France and Flanders, and died aged 21 after contracting illness while on active service.

Civilian Life - Robert was born in Forest Gate, Essex, on 2 June 1895, the only child of Robert William and Mary Ellen Sadd. The family later lived in Kenton Road, Harrow. Robert was educated at the John Lyon School and, after leaving school, worked as a bank clerk with Glyn, Mills, Currie & Co. in London. He remained in this occupation until November 1915, when he left the bank to join the Army.

Military Life - In November 1915, Sadd joined the Honourable Artillery Company as a Private, service number 5545. He served with the Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders from October 1916 and took part in operations including the fighting at Beaumont Hamel early in the Somme Campaign. The freezing, waterlogged winter conditions in the trenches late that year took a heavy physical toll. In December 1916, while serving on the Western Front, Sadd contracted trench fever and subsequently developed tonsillitis.

He was evacuated from the Front to a military hospital base at Camiers, France, eventually being transferred to Merryflatts War Hospital at Govan, Glasgow. For three months, he was stationed at a convalescent camp, even briefly finding comfort serving as a musician for the Scottish Churches Hut while attempting to recover. However, the systemic strain of the fever eventually overwhelmed his health, and he succumbed to the illness on 14 February 1917, aged 21

Robert was buried at Harrow Cemetery (Grave Reference: Plot 11, Row 4, Grave 1635). He doesn't have a Commonwealth War Graves Headstone but his surviving family could apply for one. His death was reported in the Harrow Observer, which recorded that he was the only son of Mr and Mrs Sadd and expressed sympathy for his bereaved parents.