Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Syd was the seventh of eight children of Thomas Gorringe (b1877 in Surrey, England) and Eleanor Bugden (b1877 in Sussex, England). Thomas (a Labourer) and Eleanor (a Laundry Maid) married in 1901 in Copthorne, Sussex. Thomas had started work as a Hooper/Cooper with his father when he was thirteen years of age and by 1911 was a House Painter. He and Eleanor emigrated in 1911, arriving in Fremantle WA with their four children in January 1912 on board the Armadale. The family lived in Fremantle and Perth where Thomas worked as a House Painter. In the early 1940s Thomas and Eleanor separated - Thomas lived briefly in Kalgoorlie/Boulder before returing to Perth, and Eleanor moved to Hyden near Beverley where she died in 1947.

Syd was living in Hyden, working as a Farm Hand and playing cricket for the Hyden 2/4th Cricket Team (in 1935 he was Best Batman and Best Fielder). In October 1940 he and his brother Jack enlisted in the Australian Army - both served with 2nd/4th Machine Gun Battalion and both were PoWs of the Japanese. Syd (Private; Service No:WX9335) was captured in 1942 and was held (PoW Nos:4/6168 and 8783) in Singapore at Selavang Camp and Barracks Changi and in Thailand at Tarsau, Kanyu II, Chungkai, Nacompaton and Bangkok. He left Singapore with D Force S Battalion to work on the Thai Burma Railway on 14 March 1943, and on 30 September 1943 his left leg was amputated below the knee because of tropical ulcers. In October 1945 Syd was recovered from the Japanese and returned to Fremantle WA via Singapore. Four of Syd's brothers also served in WWII - Alfred Thomas, Stanley Clarence, Maurice George and John (Jack).

Back in Perth WA, in 1947 Syd married Philomena (Beryl) Moss (b1918 in East Kirup, Victoria) - Beryl worked as a Barmaid at the Shaftsbury Hotel in Stirling St, Perth). The couple settled in Perth, where Syd worked for the Artifical Limb Association. By the late 1960s Syd had retired and Beryl was working as a Barmaid. Syd died in 1978 and Beryl in 2002.