Censuses
1911 Census (Oakley, ref 072)
Name Sidney Joseph Nixey
Address: Oxford Road, Oakley
Building Cottage
Age: 16
Born c. 1895, Oakley Bucks
Status Single
Occupation Farm Labourer (Cowman)
Other people on census
Father (Head): Joseph Nixey (58, married, Thatcher on Farm, born 1853, born Oakley, Bucks)
Mother: Ellen Nixey (48, married for 22 years, 5 children (all alive still), born 1863, Shabbington, Bucks)
Brothers: Herbert George Nixey (7, born 1904, born Oakley, Bucks)
Sisters: Emily Jane Nixey (13, scholar, born 1898, born Oakley, Bucks)
Nephew Albert Edward Povey (2, born 1909, Shabbington, Bucks)
Boarder James Henry Taylor (55, Single, Farm Labourer, born 1856 Shabbington, Bucks)
1901 Census (Oakley, ref 031)
Name Sidney Nixey
Address: Oxford Road, Oakley
Age: 6
Born 1895, Oakley, Bucks
Other people on census
Father (Head): Joseph Nixey (47, Married, Ordinary Agricultural Labourer on Farm, born 1854, Oakley, Bucks)
Mother: Ellen Nixey (36, Married, born 1865, Shabbington, Bucks)
Brothers: William Nixey (9, born 1892, Horton, Oxon)
Sisters: Rose Nixey (12, born 1889, Shabbington, Bucks)
Emily Nixey (3, born 1898, Oakley, Bucks)
Step-brother John Taylor (16, Single, Carter on Farm, born 1885, Shabbington, Bucks)
1891 Census (Oakley, ref 005)
Name Joseph Nixey
Address: Brill Road, Oakley, Bucks
Age: 37
Born 1854, Oakley, Bucks
Status Married
Occupation Agricultural Labourer
Other people on census
Mother: Ellen Nixey (26, born 1865, Shabbington, Bucks)
Sisters: Roseanna Nixey (2, born 1889, Shabbington, Bucks)
Step-brother John Taylor (6, Scholar born 1885, Shabbington, Bucks)
Cemetery / Memorial
Heilly Station Cemetery, Mericourt-L´Abbe
Country: France
Locality: Somme
Identified Casualties: 2878
Location Information
Mericourt-l’Abbe is a village approximately 19 kilometres north-east of Amiens and 10 kilometres south-west of Albert. Heilly Station Cemetery is about 2 kilometres south-west of Mericourt-l’Abbe, on the south side of the road to Corbie.
Historical Information
The 36th Casualty Clearing Station was at Heilly from April 1916. It was joined in May by the 38th, and in July by the 2/2nd London, but these hospitals had all moved on by early June 1917.
The cemetery was begun in May 1916 and was used by the three medical units until April 1917. From March to May 1918, it was used by Australian units, and in the early autumn for further hospital burials when the 20th Casualty Clearing Station was there briefly in August and September 1918. The last burial was made in May 1919.
There are now 2,890 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. Only 12 of the burials are unidentified and special memorials are erected to 21 casualties whose graves in the cemetery could not be exactly located. The cemetery also contains 83 German graves.
The burials in this cemetery were carried out under extreme pressure and many of the graves are either too close together to be marked individually, or they contain multiple burials. Some headstones carry as many as three sets of casualty details, and in these cases, regimental badges have had to be omitted. Instead, these badges, 117 in all, have been carved on a cloister wall on the north side of the cemetery.
The cemetery was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.
Private Sidney Joseph NIXEY
Personal information
Known as Sidney NIXEY
Born: c. October 1894, Oakley, Bucks
Pre-War Occupation Farm Labourer (Cowman)
Rank Private
Married: Unmarried
Died: 17 September 1916
Cause of Death Died of wounds
Age at death 21
Buried Heilly Station Cemetery, Mericourt-L´Abbe
Family
Father: Joseph Nixey (born 1853, Oakley, Bucks; baptised 16th October 1853; married 29th April 1888, Shabbington Church; died May 1920, age 66, Oakley, Bucks; buried 20th May 1920, Oakley Church)
Mother: Ellen Nixey nee Taylor (born 1864, Shabbington; baptised 7th August 1864, Shabbington Church; married 29th April 1888, Shabbington Church; died 5th January 1912, age 48, Oxford Road, Oakley; buried 8th January 1912, Oakley Church)
Brothers (2) William Thomas Nixey (born 28th June 1891, Horton, Oxon; married June 1922 to Ellen Annie Palmer;)
Herbert George Nixey (born 11th January 1903, Oakley, Bucks; married April 1934 to Lily May White; died 28 November 1970, Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford; buried 3rd December 1970, Oakley Church)
Sisters (2) Rose Hannah Nixey (born October 1888, Shabbington, Bucks; married October 1909 at Brill Church to Thomas Claridge, died June 1916, Brill, Bucks)
Emily Jane Nixey (born 15th October 1897, Oakley; married 22 June 1980, Thame Registry Office to Charles Guntrip of Brill; died October 1945 age 48)
Paternal Grandfather: William Nixey (born c. 1818, Oakley, Bucks; baptised 17 May 1818 Oakley, Bucks; married 8th April 1850, Oakley Church; died 1884 age 66, Oakley, Bucks; buried 18 Mar 1884, Oakley Church)
Paternal Grandmother: Susannah Nixey nee Hopcraft (born December 1824, Oakley, Bucks; baptised 2nd January 1825; married 8th April 1850, Oakley Church; death 1907, age 82, Oakley, Bucks; buried 11 May 1907, Oakley Church)
Maternal Grandfather: John Taylor (born c. 1824, Ickford; baptised 12 August 1824, Ickford Church; married 17th September 1848, Shabbington Church;)
Maternal Grandmother: Hannah Taylor nee Bradley (born c. 1829, Shabbington; baptised 25 December 1829, Shabbington Church; married 17th September 1848, Shabbington Church)
Medals
Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry: Roll of Individuals entitles to the Victory Medal and British War Medal granted under Army Orders 301 and 266 of 1919:
17582 Private Sidney Joseph NIXEY
15 Star L/4 B Page 281
Victory Medal L/106 B14 Page 2797
British Medal L/106 B14 Page 2797
UK Army Registry of Soldiers’ Effects (ref 377577)
Credit £9 8s 8d Allocated on 17/02/1917 to Father Joseph £9 8s 8d
War Gratuity Allocated on 07/01/1920 to Father Joseph £7 0s 0d
Memorials/notes etc.
Oakley War Memorial.
Memorial: Heilly Station Cemetery, Mericourt-L´Abbe
Grave Reference: II. H. 36.
Waddesdon Deanery Magazine
March 1915 Oakley roll of honour
November 1916 Died of wounds
Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919
First Names: Sidney Joseph
Surname: Nixey
Birth town: Oakley, Bucks
Residence Oakley, Bucks
Nationality British
Enlistment Place Swansea, Glamorgan
Date of death: 17th September 1916
Death Place France and Flanders
Theatre of War Western European Theatre
Type of Casualty Died of Wounds
Rank: Private
Service Number: 17852
Regiment Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
Battalion 5th Battalion
Age 21
Cemetery Heilly Station Cemetery, Mericourt-L´Abbe
Military background
Regiment during World War 1
Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry 5th (Service) Battalion / 14th Division
Aug 1914 Formed at Oxford as part of the First New Army (K1) and then moved to Aldershot to join the 42nd Brigade of the 14th Division and then moved to Cranleigh, Guildford.
Feb 1915 Moved to Salamanca Barracks, Aldershot.
21.05.1915 Mobilised for war and landed at Boulogne and engaged in various actions on the Western Front including;
01.10.1915 Sidney NIXEY arrived in France
1915 The Action of Hooge, part of the first flamethrower attack by the Germans, The Second Attack on Bellewaarde.
1916 The Battle of Delville Wood, The Battle of Flers-Courcelette.
OBLI – 5th Battalion War diary / 43rd Brigade
16th September 1916
18:00 Battalion ordered as ordered. Officer patrols sent to 43rd Brigade and between GAP and SWITCH TRENCHES
22:30 Officers patrol reported 43rd Brigade had taken GIRD TRENCH, but not GIRD SUPPORT and that planty of troops were in Bulls Road (Later told not true)
Report sent to 43rd Brigade stating facts that we intended to stay
Report sent to Colonel of 43rd Brigade that we were in support.
17th September 1916
01:30 Received orders from 43rd Brigade to connect with Guards on right. A company ordered to send forward platoon to make strong point on Gas Alley with Vickers; also orders for relief.
02:25 Received message from 19th Dorset Light Infantry (SLI) that O.C. FLERS though attack likely at 2 a.m.
Ordered GAP company with Vickers to Bulls Road and D company from SWITCH to occupy GAP vacated and instructed GAP Companies to enquire from DLI if they were required
03:30 Received message that CAP company not required
GAP company returned and D company also withdrawn
05:00 A Company post relieved by 13th Northumberland Fusiliers
05:30 SWITCH trench relieved by 12th Northumberland Fusiliers
05:45 1st King’s Own having failed to relieve GAP trench explained situation to 12th Northumberland Fusiliers and withdrew GAP company
Battalion bivouacked at POMMIERS redoubt for breakfast and rest.
14:00 March camp at F13b (ALBERT)
18th September 1916
Heavy rain, marched to camp D12d
According to Commonwealth War Graves Commission,
1,487 British and Empire soldiers died on 17th September 1917
10 Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry died on the day
39 soldiers buried in Heilly Station Cemetery died on that day