Sydney Day

Sydney Ernest Day (9 February 1884 – 7 July 1970) was an English amateur sportsman who played cricket for Kent County Cricket Club between 1922 and 1925 and football for Old Malvernians and Corinthian. He served in the First World War in the Royal Fusiliers and the Royal Engineers and was wounded during the Battle of the Somme.

Day was the third son of a wine merchant and was named after his father. He was educated at Shirley House School in Blackheath and Malvern College. Day played football for Malvern and appeared in the Second XI cricket team. On leaving school he joined the Royal Insurance Company, working in London.

Day played at outside-right for Old Malvernians F.C. and was Secretary of the club between 1908 and 1910. He also payed amateur football for Kent.

Day enlisted at the start of World War I joining the Royal Fusiliers in September 1914, initially as a private in the 18th (Public Schools) Battalion. He was commissioned as Second Lieutenant in July 1915 and served on the Western Front in France with 17th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers from April 1916. Day fought in the Battle of the Somme in a Trench Mortar Battery and was wounded in November 1916 at Beaumont-Hamel during the Battle of the Ancre, the last phase of the Somme offensive. He was invalided to the UK to recuperate and in January 1917 was attached to the Inland Waterways Division of the Royal Engineers. Day served the rest of the war in the UK, reaching the rank of Captain when he relinquished his commission in February 1919.