Hello Richard,

Thank you for your letter.

I can confirm that Sidney West at sometime lived at "Garfield", 52 Park Road, Burgess Hill. The present owner of the property, Sue Parsons, is also researching into the life of Sidney West.

All I can say about him is that he was at sometime living at a farm on the outskirts of Burgess Hill and had an interest in promoting boxing for young boys in the town, he died probably in the early 1950's and a "boxing hall" in Leylands Road, Burgess Hill (demolished a couple of years ago) was built in his memory. It was opened in 1956 and knows as the "Sidney West Hall", he was said to have been a wealthy man but was actually poorly dressed and gave no impression of being wealthy. After his death a trust was set up to run the boxing hall but later ended up in dept. The local council took over the building a few years before it was demolished.

Should you wish to contact sue parsons, her email address is SParsonsATfilofax.co.uk, I am sure she would be pleased to hear about the adoption.

Hope this helps,

Kind Regards,

Fred Avery.