Sydney was born on 12 February 1912 in Whitechapel, London to Polish parents Abraham, a cap machinist, and Leah nee Yenover and he had eight siblings. Sydney worked as a ladies hat machinist and he married Alice Freshwater in Hackney, London in 1939 and their son Sydney was born in 1941.

Sydney died at Rainhill Emergency Hospital, Ecclestone and his cause of death was: ‘1 (a) Uraemia, (b) Pyelonephritis. Operation to drain the kidneys on 1 Dec 1940, and he died 3 days later.’