Roberts Road (picture from SWOP website)
Sidney Alfred Toplis, courtesy the Royal Grammar School
Sidney Alfred Toplis 1893 -1917
My name is Sidney Alfred Toplis and I was born in 1893 in High Wycombe. I am the son of Charles Toplis and Mary Anne nee Jordan who married in 1889. I had one brother, Arthur Charles, who died aged 17 in 1908 and one sister, Elsie Margaret. Neither of my parents were born in Buckinghamshire – my father was from Staines in Middlesex which is where he married my mother but she was from Mark Cross in Sussex. My father was a shop keeper and employer in the oil trade. We lived at 12, Roberts Road, High Wycombe and later in Conegra Road at a house called Ralston.
I was educated at the Royal Grammar School and then joined my father in his business. This is where I would no doubt have stayed had it not been for the outbreak of war. My mother had strong ties with Sussex and I enlisted not in Wycombe but in Arundel, Sussex, in the 9th Battalion of the Sussex Regiment. I became Acting Sergeant G/5750 and I was sent to France and Flanders to serve with the British Expeditionary Force.
I was killed in action on the 13th April 1917 and I am remembered on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Ieper, Belgium. I left £422 11s 10d to my mother in my will.
I am also remembered on the High Wycombe Memorial Hospital war memorial, the High Wycombe Union Baptist Church memorial, in St John’s Desborough Road, and the High Wycombe Grammar School memorial plaque. In addition, my family inscribed the following on the family headstone in High Wycombe Cemetery:
In loving memory of
ARTHUR CHARLES
Eldest son of
CHARLES and MARY A TOPLIS
Born Nov 19 1890 Died Nov 11 1908
Also his brother
SIDNEY ALFRED
Act Sergt 9th Royal Sussex Regiment
Killed in action near Lens France
Apr 12th 1917. Aged 23 years
Researched by Margaret Anderton, Flackwell Local Area History Group and Sally Scagell, Lost the Plot