Olive Mary SYKES (1891-1983)

Olive Beryl Sykes, née Bellairs (1891-1983), known as Beryl, was the wife of Cyril Sladden’s Lieutenant-Colonel in the 9^th Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment, whilst Cyril was still training in England.  Her husband sadly committed suicide in January 1915 and she is mentioned in a few letters of that period.

Beryl was born on 9^th January 1891 at Paddington, London, the youngest of three children of Alban Ennis Bellairs and his wife, Georgina Emily (née Thompson).

In January 1914 at St George Hanover Square, London, Beryl married her first cousin, William Ernest Sykes (known as Bill), 18 years her senior.  Bill was the son of her aunt, Mary Albina Sykes, her father’s older sister.  On 17^th December 1914, a son, Hugh William Bellairs Sykes, was born.

Just over three weeks after the birth of his son, Bill Sykes, aged 42, shot himself with a revolver on 8th January 1915.  The cause of his suicide was given as “overwork”.

Beryl did not remarry.  She died at Abbotts Hill House, Abbotts Ann, Andover, Hampshire, on 14^th February 1983, aged 92.