Leading Stoker
Sidney Charles
BARTON
Royal Navy
29
Sidney Barton was born at Twickenham in London on 20 April 1885, the son of George and Agnes Barton of Twickenham, Middlesex. On leaving school he was employed as a labourer.
He joined the Royal Navy as a Stoker 2nd Class at HMS NELSON on 18 January 1906 signing on for a twelve year Continuous Service engagement. He was drafted to HMS VICTORY II at Portsmouth on 13 June 1906 and to HMS PEMBROKE II on 5 October 1906. His first sea draft was to the cruiser HMS ENDYMION, a Tender to HMS WILDFIRE as Gunnery Training Ship, on 31 October 1906.
Sidney Barton was married to Emily Elizabeth Gabb (born in Dursley in Gloucestershire in 1881) in Richmond in Surrey in the 4th Quarter of 1906. He was rated Stoker 1st Class on 1 May 1907 and, just over a year later, on 2 June 1908, he was drafted to the battleship HMS DOMINION in the Channel Fleet.
He joined submarines on 28 December 1908 when he was drafted to the Submarine Depot Ship HMS THAMES ‘for Submarine Training’. On 15 October 1912 he was drafted to the Submarine Depot Ship HMS BONAVENTURE at Harwich. Advancement to Acting Leading Stoker followed on 1 November 1913. On 3 November 1913 he was drafted to HMS DOLPHIN and on 1 December 1913, he was lent to the RAN for three years for service with Submarine Spare Crew. He was drafted to HMAS PENGUIN ‘for Submarine AE1’ on 28 February 1914.
HMAS AE1 had been built at the Vickers Yard at Barrow-in-Furness having been laid down on 3 November 1911, launched on 22 May 1913 and commissioned on 28 February 1914. He was serving in AE1 when the submarine was lost off New Britain in the Bismarck Archipelago on 14 September 1914.
Sidney Barton was twenty nine years old when he died and his wife, Emily Elizabeth Barton was listed as his Next of Kin at 140, Colne Road, Twickenham, although by the time that the Obituary Notice was published she had remarried (to James R Fullick in Brentford in Middlesex in the 2nd Quarter of 1915) and was living at 8, Addison Road, Udney Park, Teddington, Middlesex. Sidney Barton is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial on Panel 4.