BORN HULL 1896. SON OF TOM & EDITH SIZER OF 185 BEAN STREET. RAILWAY MESSENGER. ENLISTED IN THE HULL PALS. KILLED ON 15/08/1918, AGED 22. lEFT WIDOW ELSIE AND DAUGHTERS, EDITH AND DOROTHY. COMMORATED AT THE PLOEGSTEERT MEMORIAL TO THE MISSING ON THE SOMME.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE BARTHOLOMEW SIZER 6148. Born in 1896, Bartholomew was the third of four children and youngest son of Thomas and Edith Sizer of 185 Bean Street, Hull. A Messenger for the North Eastern Railway by trade, he had married Elsie Hope in July 1915 and the couple had two young daughters Edith and Dorothy. Bartholomew enlisted in 1916 and was sent to the Pals on the Western Front. Tragedy struck the family in 1917 when Thomas Sizer died leaving Edith to an uncertain future, and her pain was doubled the following year when her youngest son was killed in action on 15th August 1918 in the trenches facing Vieux-Berquin as the battalion launched infiltration attacks on supposedly vulnerable parts of the enemy lines. Bartholomew Sizer’s body was never recovered and his name is commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial to those who died on that part of the front and yet have no known grave; he was 22 years old. The photographs show the three ladies in his life, his wife Elsie in regulation black and his two daughters in happier times. Their father never lived to enjoy the happy task of walking his daughters down the aisle.
Note: Medal Records, reveal he deserted on 19/10/1917, and his medals were forfeited
