Private Sidney Harold Colley, 34th Australian Infantry Battalion, AIF

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34th Battalion marching through Amesbury, The Hallower Collection

Australian War Memorial

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Sidney Colley, known as Sid, was born in 1897 to Charles and Sarah Colley in Inverell, northern New South Wales. He attended Elsmore Public School near Inverell, and worked as a blacksmith after leaving school.

In November 1915, Colley volunteered for service in the Australian Imperial Force. He joined a recruiting march, known as the “Wallabies” that originated in Walgett and ended in Newcastle. Colley gave his age as 22, but records suggest that he was at most 18 years old. Just before he enlisted, Colley married Maude Robinson.

Colley joined the newly-raised 34th Australian Infantry Battalion. After initial training in Australia, Colley and the battalion sailed from Sydney on board the transport ship Hororata in early May 1916. The unit continued its training in England, and sailed to France in November.

The winter of 1916 to 1917 was the coldest for decades in northern France. The men of the 34th Battalion spent time in billets near the city of Armentieres, close to the Belgian border. The unit also spent time in front-line trenches. No major battles took place during winter, but while in the trenches, the men endured German artillery barrages, snipers, machine-gun fire, gas attacks, and raiding patrols.

In the middle of 1917, British commanders turned their attention away from the Somme River sector and towards the border of France and Belgium. They planned a major offensive aimed at capturing the higher ground outside the town of Ypres in Belgium. The first step in this campaign was to be the capture of the ridgeline outside the town of Messines.

In preparation for the assault on Messines, British, Canadian, and Australian soldiers had dug mines underneath the German positions and filled them with explosives. Just after 3 am on 7 June 1917, these explosives were detonated, and the allied soldiers charged the German lines.

During the attack, Colley was killed in action. He was 19 years old.

Colley’s remains were buried where he fell, but in the subsequent fighting, the location of his gravesite was lost. His name appears on the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres, among more than 54,000 Commonwealth troops who were killed in Belgium during the war and whose burial places are unknown.

Two other members of Colley’s family also served in the AIF. His eldest brother Private Lewis Colley served in France in the 5th Pioneer Battalion. He survived the war and returned to Australia in 1919.  Sidney Colley’s cousin, Private Walter Winkworth, served in France in the 33rd Battalion. He was struck by shell-fire in July 1917 and died of his wounds.

In Australia, Sidney Colley was survived by his wife Maude, and his baby daughter Rita, who he had probably never met.

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