Sidney was born in July 1924 in Hackney, London to Russian born Solomon Bolterman and Sophie née Daniels and had one sister Sheila. Their father worked as a perambulator maker and he enlisted in the Labour Corp in WW1 and served in France. After the war he changed his name from Bolterman to Bolton and worked as a timber merchant in Hackney.

Sidney was the navigator of Lancaster PB354 which departed from RAF Fulbeck on an operation to bomb the Mittelland Canal at Gravenhorst. It is speculated that one of the Lancasters PB354 and PB300 exploded after being hit by bombs from above, which in turn caused the other aircraft nearby to also explode. This speculation is confirmed by the fact that there were no Nachtjagd claims for the whole raid and all the Flak reports in Northern and Western Germany make no reference to a claim in this area. All the crew were killed.

A/G, Edmund Battye, 1593800
F/E, William Cooper, 1489922
A/G, John Houghton, 2205576
A/B, Arthur Leslie Jackson, 1324269
Pilot, Edwin Charles Maul, 179277
W/Op, Ivor Gordon Williams, 188534