Syd Cousens’ death was reported in various newspapers in Cairns, Brisbane and Toowoomba. Yet there was nothing famous about Cousens. Most reports were short, stating he died in France, that his younger brother Stan had previously been killed in the war, and that he had been a prominent soccer player in Toowoomba. He captained Western Suburbs to the 1910 Premiership, and by 1913 was the treasurer of the Toowoomba British Football Association.
Cousens was 30 when embarked for Europe on the 8th of August 1916, not to know his brother would be killed in Pozieres the next day. He spent 1917 in England, initially with serious illness until July, and then between various training battalions until he left for France just after Christmas to join the 26th Battalion.
Cousens was killed on the 8th of August 1918 at Villers-Bretonneux on the first day of the Hundred Days Offensive, exactly two years after he left Australia, and a day shy of the anniversary of his brother’s death.
His name had already been added to the Toowoomba British Football Association honour board in May, while his death was marked by the annual meeting of the association in 1919.