6th March 1917

19-year-old Private Sydney Clifford Lamplugh was killed on 6th March 1917 whilst serving as an Air Mechanic 1st Class with the Royal Flying Corps. Born in 1898, he was the second of the three children of old Silhillian Sydney Augustus Lamplugh (1870-1955) and his wife Ellen Cecile (née Gilmer) who had married in 1895. Their eldest son, Alfred Gilmer Lamplugh CBE (1895-1960) also served as a Lieutenant and Captain with the Royal Flying Corps, having learned to fly in 1913.

The family lived in Birmingham, where Sydney Augustus Lamplugh was a businessman connected with saddlery and leather goods manufacturers Middlemore & Lamplugh, before going on to establish S. A. Lamplugh Ltd, making radios in the 1920s/30s. The local connection with the family is that Sydney Clifford Lamplugh was a member of Robin Hood Golf Club in Shirley. A report of his death appeared in the Birmingham Daily Mail, 13th March 1917:

Mr and Mrs Sydney A. Lamplugh, 73 Cotton Lane, Moseley, have received news of the death of their youngest son, Private Sydney Clifford Lamplugh (19). He was educated at King Edward’s School, New Street, and the Municipal Technical School, matriculating at the London University, 1914. Apprenticed to Belliss and Morcom Ltd, he enlisted in a City Battalion in October 1914, was transferred to the Royal Flying Corps the following month, and went to the front in January 1915. Since December 1916, he has held the position of observer, and was killed in an aerial battle. He was a member of the Old Meeting Church and of Robin Hood Golf Club.

Private Lamplugh is buried at Crucifix Corner Cemetery, Villers-Bretonneux, France, and is also commemorated locally at Robin Hood Golf Club.

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