Sydney George Stanfield

Born 18 Oct 1900 - Died 1 Nov 1989

Service number: WWI 14692 AWMM
Also known as: —
Armed force / branch: Army AWMM
1st NZEF - Wellington Infantry Btn
Public - Lorraine M - Researcher - 27 August 2015 - Military record
Last rank: —
War: World War I, 1914-1918 AWMM

Enquire

Lay a poppy

Sydney George Stanfield — Nominal Roll Vol 2 (Roll 34), Page: 8 - No known copyright restrictions No Known Copyright Restrictions

Show empty fields Hide sources

Biographical information

Private Sydney George Stanfield, son of Mr Thomas W. Stanfield, of Te Rehunga, reported recently as having been wounded, is not yet 17 years of age. He enlisted when 15 1/2, being a big, bulky lad—got through the tests and training, and celebrated his sixteenth birthday in France. He went away with the 14th Reinforcements
Public - Lorraine M - Researcher - 27 August 2015 - Otago Daily Times , Issue 17063, 23 July 1917, Page 8
Transcripts
Sidney George Stanfield (Stan) was born in Tinui, near Masterton, in 1900. He worked as a farmhand before sailing for war in 1916 with the Wellington Infantry Battalion. He saw action in France and Belgium and at the end of the war was still nearly two years under the age limit for service overseas.

Hear Stan describe his experiences at Passchendaele at the time of the October 1917 offensive.

On being a stretcher-bearer at Passchendaele 12–14 October 1917

It rained and rained and bloody rained, and rained and rained, see. Just like here in the autumn time, when it comes to rain and it was cold. And we were picking them up from a gathering point as a regimental aid post. Well there were hundreds of men laying out, around. You couldn’t get them inside, it was an old German concrete emplacement and you couldn't get them all inside, but the doctors were working inside. And they were just laying around where they’d been dumped by the stretcher-bearers from off the field and at one period I believe there were 600 stretcher cases laying round the place in the wet and cold, just dying there where they were dumped off. They weren’t even laying on stretchers, just laying on the ground with an oil sheet tied over them if anyone thought to do that, or if one of their mates could do it. Just laying there, because the stretchers were used for picking up other men, you see, there couldn’t be a stretcher for every stretcher case. We just carried till you couldn’t carry more. You just went until you couldn’t walk really, you just went until you couldn’t walk.

On how infantrymen saw themselves at Passchendaele

An ordinary infantryman at Passchendaele was a pretty dumb beast. That’s how he’s treated, you see. He was only gun fodder and when all is said, and that’s what I feel. We were pretty dumb beasts you see, or we wouldn’t have been slapped, thrown into that sort of warfare, because it was hopeless before you started. We all knew that.

How men died

And poor Jim was laying there cuddled up in a heap as men die. Don’t forget we was all young, we didn’t die easy. You don’t die at once, you’re not shot and killed stone dead. You don’t die at once. We were all fit and highly trained and of course we didn’t die easy, you see. You were slow to die and you’d find them huddled up in a heap like kids gone to sleep, you know, cuddled up dead.

Wounded men at Passchendaele

There was one place at Passchendaele … where we heard a man crying at night out in front and went out and we couldn’t find him and we heard him crying part of the next day. Calling, you know, calling, sort of crying, not screaming or anything, crying out. We just knew there was a wounded man lying down under something you see. We never found that man. That's the only thing that's stuck in my memory. The others, I’ve seen them lay gasping and panting and scratching up the dirt with their fingernails on their face and all crawling around semi-delirious and all sorts of things.

His feelings about the misery of the war

I felt that the war was never going to end. It was going to go on forever. I felt that I would never see the end of the war, that it was not possible. I felt it was not possible that I would survive the war … I can remember feeling at times that I’d be quite happy to engage in any sort of slavery at all if I could be taken away from this, what, misery. Misery.
Public - Lorraine M - Researcher - 27 August 2015 - http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/sound/sidney-stanfield-remembers-passchendaele

The development of the Online Cenotaph is an ongoing process; updates, new images and records are added weekly. In some cases, records have yet to be confirmed by Museum staff, and there could be mistakes or omissions in the information provided.

Online Cenotaph Data by Auckland War Memorial Museum is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Sydney George Stanfield

Sydney George Stanfield

Identity

About

Images and documents

Images

Documents

Civilian life

About birth

Service

Wars and conflicts

Military decorations

Training and Enlistment

Embarkations

Prisoner of war

Medical history

Last known rank

Biographical information

Biographical information

Death

About death

Memorials

Memorial

Sources

Sources

Sydney George Stanfield

Sydney George Stanfield

Identity

About

Images and documents

Images

Documents

Civilian life

About birth

Service

Wars and conflicts

Military decorations

Training and Enlistment

Embarkations

Prisoner of war

Medical history

Last known rank

Biographical information

Biographical information

Death

About death

Memorials

Memorial

Related items

Related objects

Sources

Sources