| Residences | Civilian Occupation |
| Pennsylvania, Delaware | Machinist for General Chemical |
| Branch | Service Numbers |
| U.S. Naval Reserve | U.S. Army 565951 / U.S. Navy 2459821 |
| Theater | Unit |
| Pacific | Construction Battalion Maintenance Unit 554 |
| Entered the Service From | Campaigns/Battles (World War I) |
| Wilmington, Delaware | Aisne-Marne, Saint-Mihiel, and Meuse-Argonne campaigns |
Early Life & Family
Sidney Lemuel Galbraith was born in Johnsonburg, Pennsylvania, on January 7, 1902. He was the son of Charles Claire Galbraith (a laborer, 1879–1960) and Mary Alice Galbraith (née Clark, 1877–1954). He had at least ten siblings.
Galbraith was recorded on the census on April 16, 1910, living with his maternal grandparents in Blanchard, Liberty Township, Pennsylvania. His military paperwork indicates that he dropped out of school after completing the 8th grade. He was Protestant according to his U.S. Navy file.
World War I & Interwar Life
Galbraith enlisted in the U.S. Army at Columbus Barracks, Ohio, on December 11, 1917. He was only 15 years old at the time, but claimed to be 19, giving his date of birth as January 7, 1898. Curiously, a newspaper article indicates this was the teenager’s second enlistment. The Altoona Times reported on December 11, 1917:
Included in those leaving yesterday was S. L. Galbraith, aged [1]6, of Monument. Some months ago he enlisted and because of his age his father secured his release from Fort Slocum. However, everything was fixed up and he left with the other men.
Private Galbraith joined Supply Company of the 13th Field Artillery at Camp Greene, North Carolina. He was transferred to the 77th Field Artillery, also located at Camp Greene, on January 24, 1918. The following day Private Galbraith joined Battery “B,” 77th Field Artillery, 4th Division. He went overseas on May 19, 1918, shipping out from the Hoboken Port of Embarkation.
Galbraith’s unit participated in the Aisne-Marne, Saint-Mihiel, and Meuse-Argonne offensives. After the armistice, he was promoted to private 1st class on March 1, 1919. He shipped back out for the United States on July 17, 1919, arriving on July 29, 1919. He was transferred out of his unit at the end of the month and was honorably discharged on August 5, 1919. Galbraith was recorded on the census on January 26 or 27, 1920, living with his parents and siblings in Liberty Township.
Galbraith married Janetta Charlotte Mann (1905–1968), with whom he raised four sons: Robert Guy (1926–1982), Kenneth Sidney (1927–2005), Donald Marvin (1929–2009), and James Leland (1933–2000). James Galbraith also served in the Seabees during World War II.
Galbraith was recorded on the next census on April 3, 1930, living with his wife and three children living on Center Street in Hamilton Park, north of New Castle City, Delaware. He was working as a millwright at a dye works. Galbraith had moved to Brookland Terrace, outside Wilmington, Delaware, by of April 15, 1931. According to a work history that he submitted to the U.S. Navy, Galbraith began working for the DuPont company as a millwright at their facility in Deepwater, New Jersey, in December 1932. He was listed as a millwright living at 311 Woodlawn Avenue in a 1934 Wilmington directory. The Galbraith family was recorded again on the census on April 15, 1940, living at 206 West 26th Street in Wilmington.
World War II
Galbraith wrote in his work history that he left DuPont in April 1942 for a job as a machinist in the Bethlehem Steel Company shipyard in Wilmington. He apparently worked there until October 1942, when the yard closed. He then worked as a machinist for the American Car & Foundry, apparently from October 1942 through April 1943. He then moved to a job as a millwright for General Chemical in Claymont, Delaware. According to his enlistment paperwork, as of September 1, 1943, Galbraith stood five feet, six inches tall and weighed 157 lbs., with brown hair and blue eyes.
At the end of 1942, President Roosevelt issued an executive order barring voluntary enlistments for men ages 18 to 37. Instead, local draft boards selected almost all manpower for the armed forces, thereby ensuring that men did not leave civilian jobs deemed critical to the war effort so they could enlist. Galbraith, being 41 years old, was allowed to voluntarily enlist. Furthermore, due to his civilian work experience, he was given the opportunity to enlist as a carpenter’s mate 1st class in a Naval Construction Battalion rather than having to attend boot camp and work his way up.
Galbraith was accepted for a two-year enlistment as a carpenter’s mate 1st class in the U.S. Naval Reserve on September 1, 1943, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and went on active duty that same day. Two days later, he reported at the U.S. Naval Construction Training Center at Camp Peary, Virginia. During October 8–27, 1943, he attended a 16-day course at Camp Peary on the subject of stills and purifiers, scoring 88 out of 100.
According to his personnel file, on September 14, 1943, Galbraith’s rating changed to machinist’s mate 1st class. Curiously, some subsequent records in his file refer to him as a carpenter’s mate 1st class. He went on leave from October 29, 1943, through November 8, 1943.
On November 10, 1943, Galbraith transferred to Construction Battalion Maintenance Unit 554. The same day, his unit departed for the West Coast, arriving at Advance Base Depot, Port Hueneme, California, on November 15, 1943. From December 6–17, 1943, Galbraith attended a water distillation and purification school there. Shortly thereafter, on January 1, 1944, he shipped out for the Pacific with the rest of his unit.
On January 11, 1944, Construction Battalion Maintenance Unit 554 arrived at the Naval Air Station Johnston Island, on the main island in the Johnston Atoll. A lonely outpost located in the Pacific Ocean southwest of Hawaii, Johnston hosted a seaplane base when Pearl Harbor was attacked. Later in the war, its airfield became vital for transpacific air travel, given the limited aircraft ranges during that era. Aside from a pair of attacks by Japanese submarines at the beginning of the Pacific War, the atoll had not seen any combat. Galbraith’s unit was entrusted with maintaining the naval facilities there.
On the afternoon of May 29, 1944, Galbraith was admitted at the dispensary at the Naval Air Station. Lieutenant Commander J. C. Hales wrote:
Patient was brought to the sick bay from his quarters in a state of semi-stupor by hospital corpsmen at 1620 on 29 May 1944. Patient’s roommate stated that patient had been ill and had remained in his bunk all afternoon. […] Patient rested quietly for nearly an hour after administration of mild sedatives. This was followed by marked restlessness, then delirium and coma. Failed to respond to supportive treatment.
Machinist’s Mate 1st Class Galbraith died at 0402 hours on May 30, 1944. Another man assigned to Johnston Island, Machinist’s Mate 2nd Class Howard MacFarland, died on May 29, 1944, the same day Galbraith became sick. Authorities determined that Galbraith’s canteen contained methyl alcohol (methanol) and concluded that both men died from accidental methyl alcohol poisoning.
Historically, methanol poisoning has occurred when consuming moonshine, but Lieutenant Commander Hales indicated that the liquid in the canteen was 98% methyl alcohol, suggesting the men had confused it with potable alcohol (ethanol), which has a similar smell and taste. Circumstantial evidence suggests that Galbraith struggled with alcoholism. Wilmington newspapers documented convictions on alcohol-related charges in 1931 and 1942. The U.S. Navy had banned liquors from vessels and stations in 1914. Rigidly enforced or not, alcohol may have been hard to come by on remote Johnston Atoll.
Galbraith was buried at sea at 1030 hours on May 30, 1944. He is honored on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii, on a cenotaph at Lombardy Cemetery in Wilmington, and at Veterans Memorial Park in New Castle, Delaware.
Notes
Insurance Paperwork
That Galbraith was underage when he served in the U.S. Army during World War I appeared to have gone largely unnoticed when he joined the military during World War II. However, when he applied for government-sponsored life insurance available to all servicemembers, the earlier date of birth was flagged. Galbraith had to supply proof of his 1902 birthdate to avoid paying a higher insurance premium!
Work History
There are some confusing dates on the work history sheet that Galbraith supplied to the Navy, probably because he had to fill it out in reverse order with most recent job listed first. He wrote that he was at Bethlehem Steel from April 1942 to October 1943 and at American Car & Foundry from October 1943 to April 1943. Since the document was written in the summer of 1943, it would tend to suggest that he was at Bethlehem Steel from April 1942 to October 1942, and at American Car & Foundry from October 1942 to April 1943.
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to the Galbraith family for the use of their photo.
Bibliography
Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Record Group 29, Records of the Bureau of the Census. National Archives at Washington, D.C. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6224/images/4531891_00383
Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920. Record Group 29, Records of the Bureau of the Census. National Archives at Washington, D.C. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6061/images/4384790_00026
“Grand Rush at U.S. Recruiting Station Here.” The Altoona Times, December 11, 1917. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/114632149/galbraith-enlisted-again/
“Man Is Fined $10 and Costs In Fight Case.” Journal-Every Evening, July 25, 1942. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/114631962/galbraith-intoxication/
“Muster Roll of Battery ‘B’ of the [77th] Field Artillery Army of the United States, from last bimonthly muster on the 31st day of December, 1917, to muster on the 28th day of February, 1918.” U.S. Army Enlisted and Officer Rosters, July 1, 1918 – December 31, 1939. Record Group 64, Records of the National Archives and Records Administration. National Personnel Records Center, St. Louis, Missouri. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QHV-F3CV-SDB7
“Muster Roll of Supply Company of the 13th Field Artillery Army of the United States, from last bimonthly muster on the 31st day of December, 1917, to muster on the 28th day of February, 1918.” U.S. Army Enlisted and Officer Rosters, July 1, 1918 – December 31, 1939. Record Group 64, Records of the National Archives and Records Administration. National Personnel Records Center, St. Louis, Missouri. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QHV-X3CV-999X-M
“Nab Drunken Driver When Brake Smoked.” Every Evening, April 15, 1931. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/114631928/sidney-galbraith-dui/
“Naval Construction Battalion Maintenance Unit 554 Historical Information.” Naval History and Heritage Command. https://www.history.navy.mil/content/dam/museums/Seabee/UnitListPages/CBMU/CBMU%20554.pdf
Polk’s Wilmington (New Castle County, Del.) City Directory 1934–35. R. L. Polk & Company Publishers, 1934. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2469/images/16084125
“Roster of Battery ‘B’, 77th Field Artillery, at midnight, July 31, 1919.” U.S. Army Enlisted and Officer Rosters, July 1, 1918 – December 31, 1939. Record Group 64, Records of the National Archives and Records Administration. National Personnel Records Center, St. Louis, Missouri. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QHV-X3CV-SDCW
Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Record Group 29, Records of the Bureau of the Census. National Archives at Washington, D.C. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2442/images/m-t0627-00551-00376
Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910. Record Group 29, Records of the Bureau of the Census. National Archives at Washington, D.C. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7884/images/4449762_00007
World War I Veterans Service and Compensation File, 1934–1948. Record Group 19, Series 19.91, Records of the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/60884/images/41744_3421606187_0790-03710
Last updated on March 10, 2023
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