Description:Postcard showing the band of the 1/5th Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment, shortly after formation in Walsall in 1914.
Pte Sidney Gee is seated on the gound next left of the drums. The cousin of Sidney Gee, Harry Gee (Service number 6515), was the bandmaster in the photograph and died from shellfire near Hill 60 in the Ypres salient on 26 August 1915 He had the rank of Company Serjeant Major and died at the age of 24.
Right hand side, second on the back row is William Dutton, regimental number 200014. William originally joined the 2nd Battalion South Staffordshire Volunteers in Walsall in 1905 as a private with the regimental number 6137 and remained with them until the outbreak of war. He was promoted to Lance Corporal 24th May 1909 and was appointed Bandsman 8th February 1911. He was demobbed on 11 th January 1919 after being treated at Lichfield military Hospital for the effects of gas, being discharged from there on 1st January 1919.