Service Number: 1336
Unit: 20th Battalion, D Company
Enlistment: 12/4/15
Embarkment: 25/6/15
Date of Death: 17/12/15
Location of Death: Anzac Cove (During Evacuation)
His Story
George Sidney Thomas Wicks, known by those close to him as ‘Syd’ was born on 15 February 1894 in Jaspers Brush near Berry, New South Wales. He was the tenth of twelve children born to Thomas and Annie Wicks. By the time war broke out, he was working as a labourer and living with his family on Glebe Street in Ryde.
At 21 years old, George enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force. His service history already included 18 months in the senior cadets, 3.5 years in the Citizens Forces, and a brief stint with the Light Horse. He embarked aboard HMAT Berrima with the 20th Battalion, D Company on the 25th of June 1915.
In August 1915, The Cumberland Argus reported that he had landed in Egypt…
“soon following his brother, Sapper F. C. Wicks, to the front.”
George joined the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force and landed at Gallipoli on the 16th of August 1915. He was soon sent north with his battalion to reinforce Russell’s Top, a dangerous position above Anzac Cove, which was constantly exposed to Turkish fire.
Life on Russell’s Top was relentless, by October the strain was evidently visible. On the 23rd that month, George was recorded for:
“disobedience of orders – failing to stand to in the morning”
He received 14 days field punishment, his defiance a reminder of the psychological and physical toll Gallipoli exacted on all soldiers.
Yet despite this, George remained with his unit through one of the most harrowing phases of the campaign; the evacuation of Anzac Cove.
In mid-December, final preparations were underway for the complete withdrawal of Allied forces. Every movement had to be quiet, precise, and disciplined, to maintain the illusion of the trenches being occupied, to the Turkish soldiers.
It was during this tense withdrawal that tragedy struck. On 17 December 1915, just two days before the final evacuation, George Wicks was killed in action.
“WICKS – Killed in action during the evacuation of Anzac, on December 17… dearly beloved son of Mr. Thomas Wicks, of Glebe-street, Ryde.”
(Sydney Morning Herald, 15 January 1916)
His name is now etched on the Lone Pine Memorial, panel 64, and remembered at Ryde Public School, St Anne’s Anglican Church, and in the Ryde Civic Centre Memorial Book.
A year later, his brother and sister-in-law, Ern and Mabel, published a tribute:
“He rose responsive to his country’s call
(Ryde Goes to War, Page 285, SMH, 16 December 1916, P. 12)
And gave for her his best — his life, his all.”