SUTTON soldier Sylvester Petty was among 56 British soldiers killed in a tiny corner of the Western Front during one day of the Battle of the Somme.

Thirty-year-old Private Petty lost his life on October 7, 1916 during an assault by his 11th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment on the German lines at Le Sars.

Sylvester, who had worked as a house painter before the war, did not live to see the battalion achieve its objectives despite the heavy cost.

According to the battalion war diary the attack began “20 minutes after zero hour” with a frontal attack on Flers Support Trench north of Le Sars.

The British soldiers were stopped by artillery and small-arms fire from the left flank.

A second attack succeeded with support from bombers attacking along the trench, and the retreating Germans were shot by British infantry and the divisional artillery.

The 10th Duke of Wellington’s arrived later, but by then Sylvester, eight officers and 216 other ranks has been killed or wounded.

Sylvester was born in 1885 and grew up at Sutton Mill, and by the age of 15 he was working as a weft man in a local worsted mill.

Sylvester enlisted in February 1915 and was sent to France 14 months later.