Sydney Stanley French was born on 9th November 1894 and would see service as a Private and later Acting Corporal (No. 19743) with the 9th Battalion, Essex Regiment on the Western Front from 16th December 1915. He was noted as wounded in the Suffolk and Free Press on 20th September 1916, this during the Battle of the Somme where the battalion saw action at Ovillers and La Boiselle, and he would later be discharged due to wounds and sickness on 18th July 1917.
Sydney would go on to serve during the Second World War as part of an Air Raid Protection Rescue Party, this being confirmed on the 1939 Register, where he is noted as living at Roseberry Road, Chelmsford.