Sydney Millican came from a soccer playing family in Toowoomba. He and unidentifiable brother played for Western Suburbs III in 1913, younger brother Charles captained Allies in 1915, while the youngest brother Victor played youth football for the Cadets side in 1918. Several members of the family, including Millican, were also involved in competitive cycling.
Sydney, Charles and their eldest brother Thomas, who lived in Victoria, went off to war. Sydney enlisted in September 1915, a few weeks after Charles, and was allocated to the 42nd Battalion. He did not leave Australia until June 1916 and reached France in September.
He was initially allocated to the 9th Battalion but was transferred to the 1st Anzac Corps Salvage Section when it formed in January 1917. The Salvage Section was tasked with reclaiming equipment from the battlefield, and ensuring it was reconditioned or recycled. Their role was to help minimise the need for new supplies to be delivered to the front. While the Section saw casualties while undertaking salvage runs, Millican seems to have been largely spared. His war was only impacted by conjunctivitis and later bronchitis.
He was able to embark England back for Australia in April 1919. On his arrival, The Toowoomba Chronicle of 16 June 1919 reported, under the title “Private S. F. Millican”: “To have welcomed back home his only three soldier sons is the proud record of Mr. R. Millican, of Dalmeny Street, Newtown. On Saturday Private S. F. Millican returned.” After a brief recap of Millican’s service, the article confirmed brother Charles had recently returned to Toowoomba.
Neither Millican nor Charles appeared on the Toowoomba British Football Association Board Honour Board unveiled in May 1918. Strangely it seems another brother, William, was added. It is unknown whether William played soccer or contributed to the war effort, or if the entry was a transcription mistake for the newspaper report (in the Darling Downs Gazette of 9 May 1918), given the previous name on the list was W. Milward.
Millican lived with his parents at Dalmeny St, at least periodically, into the 1930s until his father, Robert passed away in 1935. Charles and other members of the family also spent time living in the family home. He never married. His occupation in 1941 was a farm labourer, by which time he had moved to Bridge St in Toowoomba.
Millican died in 1974.