Story
Sidney Bollam, a coachman working at the prestigious Branksome Tower Hotel, served on both the Western Front in France and the Mediterranean Front in Salonika and ended up suffering from malaria. He was a married man with five children when he joined up as a Driver in the Royal Army Service Corps (regimental number 055931) in January 1915. He was in the Horse and Transport division and given the medical category of B1. He had worked before the war as a coachman and a previous employer, F.S. Flower, Job Master, of West End Mews, Seamoor Road, Bournemouth, gave him a certificate of reference to confirm that he could drive a pair of horses. Mr Flower then added: I can further state that the above S.V. Bollam have [sic] been driving both single and pair of horses for me for the last 10 years and would not have left his situation only to serve his King and Country.' Standing 5ft 9ins tall with a 38.5ins chest, he gave his age as 37 years and 7 months when he enlisted. After serving at home from 23 January 1915, he was posted to France on 3 August 1915, He served in France until 20 October of that year. After a spell serving at home he then served at Salonika from 8 August 1916 to 18 April 1918. Then he was stationed back in Britain before, it appears, he was sent abroad again to serve in France on 19 October, a month before the Armistice. Driver Bollam was back, it seems, serving at home in March 1919 before being discharged on 21 April 1919 at the age of 41 and suffering from bouts of malaria. He was medically examined for a pension on 2 September of that year and was judged to have a 40 percent disability to the disease. Sidney Bollam was awarded a back-dated weekly pension of 11 shillings (55p) plus a further 9 shillings and 8 pence (48p) for his five children. From the date of the examination is pension was increased to 16/- (80p) plus 10/8 (53p) for his wife and five children. He also received the 1914/15 Star, the British War and Victory medals. Sidney Victor Bollam was born in Blandford, the son of James and Elizabeth Bollam. He was baptised on 10 November 1875. (Note: He said he was 37 on enlisting in the Army in 1915 but this would put him at 40.) His father's occupation was listed as 'labourer'. The 1881 Census records father James as boarding with an agricultural labourer and his wife in Bryanston, along with Sidney and two older sisters (Fanny and Augustine). James Bollam, too, was working as a agricultural labourer. Sidney's mother, Elizabeth, was not recorded there on the day of the census. It lists James as 'married' (ie not a widower) Sidney married Charlotte Bessie Harvey on 7 June 1897. She had been born in Kinson parish. In 1901 Sidney was working as a coachman, living at at the Branksome Tower Hotel Stables. In 1911, the Electoral Register records Sidney Victor Bollam (born in Blandford, as living at Sunnyholm Stables, Princess Road, Poole. That year the family may have moved to Valley Cottage in Gwynne Road for that was where they were living at the time of the 1911 Census. The first of the couple's six children, Victor, had been born in Bournemouth around 1898, he being 13 and an errand boy at the time of the 1911 census. This lists the other children as Leslie, nine, Winifred, seven, Nellie, five, Reginald, three and Cecil, one. (In his Army record, Sidney names five children, Sidney [Edward?] was born on 26 Dec 1901. The second, Annette Winifred Bessie, came along in December 1903 followed by Dorothy Ellen on 2 February 1906. Their fourth child, Reginald James, was born in August 1909 with the fifth, William Cecil in March 1910. The oldest son, Victor, not listed, would have been 17.) After the war, both Sidney and his wife, Charlotte Bessie were registered as electors, still living at Valley Cottage in Gwynne Road. By 1939, the couple were still living in Gwynne Road, at number 34, but were now listed under the surname of Ballam. Sidney's date of birth was listed as 24 September 1875 and he was working as a car washer in a motor garage. Charlotte Bessie's as 17 November 1875. Sidney V. Ballam died in the last quarter of 1953. His wife had passed away 10 years earlier. (Note: The local Kelly's Directories continue recording the name of the occupier at 34 Gwynne Road as Sidney Bollam, not Ballam.) * Please contact us if you wish to suggest any addition or amendment.