Killick, SH

2nd Lieutenant Sydney Howard Killick

Born on February 12^th 1897 in Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex, Sydney was the second son of meat salesman, and later more general wholesale merchant, John Killick and his wife, Clara. Having previously been at the Prep, he came to the College in the spring of 1910, three years after his elder brother, Alexander, had joined, and remained at Dulwich for the next five years. He spent two summers, those of 1914 and 1915, playing for the cricket 2^nd XI, and over the winter in between had played for the 1^st XV.

After leaving Dulwich in the summer of 1915 Sydney went straight into an Officers Cadet Battalion, going on to take up a commission in the East Surreys that October. He was posted to Ireland, and as a result was involved in the putting down of the Easter Rising, shortly after which he was transferred to France for the first time with the 1^st Battalion of his regiment. After a short time at Arras, he went to the Somme, where he was involved in the capture of Delville Wood, before being severely wounded at Longueval and invalided home as a result. After a year’s convalescence, he returned to the front in autumn 1917. The German Offensive of March 1918 saw the East Surreys take heavy losses, and at one point Sydney was the only Officer of his company to be left alive. On May 14^th he came down with blood poisoning, as the result of an infected wound, and died as a result two days later, at hospital in Rouen.