Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Sidney James Pelin was born in January 1900, and enlisted at just after he turned 16 years of age. His mum stated he was a stockman. He was the son of John and Phoebe Elizabeth Pelin, of Mount Morgan, Queensland. His father, John Pelin, also enlisted in 1916 at 48 years of age.

Sidney was only in the front line for three weeks before he took part in a raid on 1 February 1917, near Gueudecourt, when the 15th Battalion attacked a section of the German front line known as Stormy Trench. The party consisted of 150 men and six officers, or one and half companies. The attack started at about 7.00 p.m. on a frontage of 500 metres. Although the enemy trenches were only 100 metres from the Australian lines, inadequate artillery support caused the attack to fail. A German counter attack at 11 p.m. was beaten off. In the face of relentless German shelling of the captured trenches, and a stronger German counter attack at 4.30 a.m. the Battalion was forced to retire. Although 52 German soldiers were captured, the 15th Battalion’s casualties were 38 men killed, over 20 captured by the Germans and over 80 wounded.

Sidney Pelin was said to have been killed by a piece of frozen earth when a ‘whizz-bang’ exploded on the parapet. He had only just turned 17 years of age. It was noted in his service file that he was buried in Switch Trench Cemetery at Flers. This cemetery, containing 110 (mainly Australian) graves of 1916-17 was later concentrated to the Guards' Cemetery at Lesboeufs, France.

In a memorial notice printed in a local paper in 1918, “One of his mates, writing from "Somewhere in France," said: -"Sid, poor little chap, dropped close to my post. He was a noble lad and had no fear of death. He was always very cheerful in the trenches, and was well liked by everyone who knew him. He was always willing, and one of the gamest. I have known him to crawl out under heavy shell fire to a shell hole for water, with water bottles tied almost all over him.”