BORN NORTH FERRIBY 14/05/1895. ELDEST SON OF HAROLD HELMSING & ETHEL (BAXTER) SISSONS FROM NORTH FERRIBY. HE WAS EDUCATED AT RUGBY SCHOOL AND WORKED FOR HIS FATHER WHO WAS A DIRECTOR OF THE SISSONS LTD FIRM. NORMAN GAVE UP HIS COMMERCIAL CAREER TO JOIN THE EAST RIDING IMPERIAL YEOMANRY THE DAY AFTER WAR WAS DECLARED. THREE MONTHS LATER HE RECEIVED A COMMISSION AND WAS ATTACHED TO THE EAST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT. HE SERVED IN EGYPT BEFORE BEING KILLED IN ACTION IN FRANCE. HIS DEATH WAS REPORTED IN THE HULL DAILY MAIL WITH HIS PHOTOGRAPH ON 13TH SEPTEMBER 1916.
Lieutenant Norman Lea Sissons was the eldest son of Harold Sissons, Managing Director of Sissons Brothers and Co, Hull (Varnish & Paint Manufacturer) and of Ethel his Wife.
He entered School in 1909 and left in 1912. He then spent one year in Germany and France studying chemistry and languages after which he worked for seven years with his father’s firm. On the day of declaration of War he joined the East Riding Yeomanry as a troop three months later he received a commission in the 11th Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment. In November 1915 he went with his Battalion to Egypt, and in March, 1916, to France he was for some months with the Brigade Staff and latterly was made Sniping Officer and intelligence Officer to the Brigade, at which work he was exceptionally clever, while doing observation work in the front line he was shot by a sniper near Bethune, September 9th, 1916. Age 21. His Colonel wrote :- “I have only been in Command of this Battalion for a very short time but it has been long enough for me to know what a splendid fellow and what a keen soldier your son was. All of us were intensely grieved at his sudden end, an end which means the loss to this Battalion of one of its best and most capable Officers.” An Officer who had previously commanded his Battalion wrote :- “I hope it may be some comfort to you to know how much your son was liked and appreciated by brother Officers, and how popular he was with the N.C.O’s and men of the Battalion. Ever since our arrival in France; he had given promise of great things. Fearless in carrying out all his duties, he was a specially good Intelligence Officer. Being a good French and German linguist stood him in good stead. The Battalion has lost an excellent and thorough Officer.
In 1914 Sissons were manufacturers of varnish, paint and colour. Specialities: Hall’s Sanitary Distemper, liquid paints, varnishes and colours for coach builders and decorators,
lubricating oils and greases. They employed 400 staff. During the First World War there was a shortage of male workers at Sissons Brothers and Co, Hull (Varnish & Paint
Manufacturer) so women took on the role of manufacturing the paint products.
