In Memory of SIDNEY ROBERT ARMITAGE Lieutenant Royal Army Service Corps Who died on Friday, 11th May 1917 Aged 23 Buried Plot I Row E. Grave 16 Mazingarbe Communal Cemetery Extension, Pas de Calais, France Commemorated in Perpetuity by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission & Remembered with Honour

Mazingarbe Communal Cemetery Extension1

Sidney Robert Armitage was born in Nottingham on 23rd November 1894², the second son, third child of Stephen and Margaret (née Robinson) Armitage. In 1901, the family were living at Rock House, Epperstone, Notts³, except for Sidney's elder brother, Stephen Cecil Armitage (1889-1962) who was then boarding at Winkfield School in Winkfield, Berkshire⁴. Both Cecil and Sidney went on to Rugby School. By 1911, the family had moved to Beeston and was living at Broadgate House on Broadgate⁵.

Stephen Armitage was the third son, one of fourteen children, of Samuel Fox Armitage (1830-1914) who, as a member of a Quaker family, had attended Bootham School, a Quaker boarding school in York. In turn, Stephen had attended the Ackworth School, a Quaker school, near Pontefract, Yorkshire. By 1869, Samuel had taken over the firm of Hutchinson & Armitage, a very successful Nottingham grocery enterprise. In 1890, he transferred the company to his sons, Wilson, Joseph John and Stephen Armitage who continued to develop it, particularly by their opening of quality café/restaurants in Nottingham - notably the Mikado Café on Long Row and the Oriental Café on Wheeler gate. In 1897, the company was floated as a public company as Armitage Brothers Limited.⁶.

In addition to his undoubted business acumen, Stephen applied his energies to charity and philanthropic works - in particular to guiding and assisting many of the local hospitals with his experience and resources. There is more about Stephen Armitage's life and works here

By the beginning of the Great War, both sons had begun their careers - Stephen Cecil as a solicitor with the Nottingham firm of Eking, Morris & Armitage and Sidney Robert as an accountant. Both immediately put these careers on hold, to serve with the colours. Both were commissioned with the Notts & Derby Army Service Corps, Stephen Cecil as a Captain and, Sidney Robert. initially as a Second Lieutenant.

On 15 February 1915, Stephen Armitage died unexpectedly, aged only 50, at his home in Beeston⁷. Some five days earlier he had undergone an operation for appendicitis from which he was expected to make a full recovery. When he took a turn for the worse, both sons rushed home to his bedside, from Braintree, Essex where they were stationed awaiting transfer to France.

So it was that, barely two weeks later, on 4 March 1915, Sidney embarked for France as part No 4 Company, 46th Divisional Train which was commanded by his brother. The Company quickly settled down to its daily, unending task. Division Trains, provided horse-drawn transport for a specific Division. Typically, it comprised a small Train Headquarters, a Headquarters Company, three other Horse Transport Companies and a contingent of other troops (known as Army Troops), all of the Army Service Corps. An officially approved Train could comprise up to 22 Officers and 337 men and would then occupy almost a mile of road when on the move in approved formation. It's vital task was to provide a supply line to the Division⁸.

On 10th October 1915, Sidney was promoted to Temporary Lieutenant, a position that was made permanent from 1st June 1916. The Company's war diaries continue to record the daily routine which he and the rest of the Company faced until, in May 1917, the record reads :

11th May - Lt Armitage killed together with horse while on convoy duty near Lievin
12th May - Lt Armitage buried at Mazingarbe

Mazingarbe Communal Cemetery and its extension are located in the Pas de Calais, in the small town of Mazingarbe, located between Lens and Bethune. Mazingarbe Communal Cemetery was used by units and field ambulances from June 1915 to February 1916. It contains 108 Commonwealth burials of the First World War and 24 French war graves. The extension was begun by the 16th (Irish) Division in April 1916 and continued in use until October 1918. It contains 248 Commonwealth burials of the First World War and two German graves.⁹.

⁶Lieutenant Armitage was posthumously awarded the Victory and British Medals and the 1915 Star. These were sent to his mother in November 1922, while she was living at College Hill House, Haselmere, Surrey¹⁰. She later returned to Beeston to live out her life with her two unmarried daughters, Elsie Margaret (1892-1974) and Hilda Winifred (1895-1981), at Cavendish Lodge, 10 Devonshire Avenue. She died at her home on 9 November 1938 with her funeral service at Beeston Parish Church, where she had been a devoted member during her lifetime¹¹. She was interred in Nottingham Church Cemetery with her husband¹². Hilda married Bernard Charles Webster at Beeston Parish Church, on 20 April 1939. Stephen Cecil Armitage survived the war, became a Director of Armitage Brothers Limited and took an active part in public life. He was Knighted in 1953, awarded the CBE, and was an Alderman and Honorary Freeman of the City of Nottingham. He died in 1962 and was survived by three children, Irene Margaret Dodd, Stephen Robert Armitage (1924-2010) and Lady Elizabeth Nivison. Cecil and Sidney also lost a cousin, Stanley Wilson Armitage, in the war. He enlisted in Birmingham with the King's Royal Rifle Corps, was offered a commission but preferred to stay in the ranks. After promotion to Corporal and arriving in France with the 9th Battalion, he was killed on the first day of the Battle of Loos, 25 September 1915.

Sidney Robert Armitage is also remembered on the memorial in the chapel at Rugby School¹³.

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Footnotes
¹The photograph of the Mazingarbe Communal Cemetery Extension is from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website. (http://www.cwgc.org)
²He was baptised at Nottingham All Saints Church, Nottingham on 28 December 1893. His birth was registered in Nottingham Registration District in Q1/1894 (Ref 7b 304)
³1901 Census - Epperstone, Notts: Piece 3192 Folio 137. They employed a governess, a nurse and a cook.
⁴1901 Census - Winkfield, Berkshire: Piece 1163 Folio 19
⁵1911 Census - Beeston, Notts: Piece 20430 RD429 SD3 ED5 Sched 307. Margaret's widowed mother, Mary A Robinson, was living with the family. They employed two servants.
⁶More details of the company and its activities are in the notice of a Bond Issue in the Nottingham Express on 15 August 1899
⁷Nottingham Evening Post : 15 February 1915 and Nottingham Journal : 16 February 1915.
His estate valued at £22,188 was proved at Nottingham on 24 February 1915 by his sons.
⁸Details of the activities of the Divisional Train in France are in its war diaries (available on ancestry com)
Details of a typical Divisional Train are from The Long, Long Train website (www.1914-1918.net/what_divtrain.html) where more details may be found.
⁹The description of the cemetery is based on that given on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website. (http://www.cwgc.org)
¹⁰Details of medals, embarkation date and mother's address in 1922 from Sidney's medal Card (on ancestry.com).
His estate, valued at £2,229 was proved at Nottingham by his brother, on 1 August 1917
¹¹Nottingham Journal : 10 November 1938 and 14 November 1938.
¹²Grave Number 9130 Rock Section. The memorial includes inscriptions for both Stephen and Margaret as well as their son, Sidney Robert.
¹³The memorial may be seen at the War Memorial Online website (

Other detail is derived from standard genealogical sources

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