Sydney was very interested in the works of Charles Dickens, so much so that he later named his daughter, his house and his dog from names in Dickens novels. He used to perform monologue sketches in vaudeville and it is likely that he was doing this during his spare time whilst working for the Crown Derby china manufacturers.

Sydney may well have met his wife Vera as a result of his theatrical work and they both used to take part in amateur theatrical productions at Brentham, Middlesex. He was also earning some income by teaching elocution to aspiring actors and a book of hand-written extracts of Dickens works which he used remains in the possession of his family.

Sydney also got into films, probably through contacts he had from his earlier theatrical days. He worked for a number of companies from around 1914 up to 1923 and rose to the peak of his acting career at the end of that period. His talents not only covered acting as he was also successful as studio manager, art director and stage manager. He was involved in both designing and constructing some of the sets. He was quite adept at drawing and painting and some of his paintings, possibly for stage backdrops, still survive. Sydney's daughter Doady had recollections of watching her father at work in the studios when she was a child.

There are some references at the National Film Archive relating to Sydney. Doady and her son Malcolm visited the archive in 1979 when it was located in the West End of London and viewed the copy of 'Becket' They found that the famous scene of the killing of Thomas A'Beckett at the altar of Canterbury cathedral has not survived. Doady donated some programmes of films in which Vesta Tilley had appeared also a set of photographs which had belonged to Sydney and which showed some of the stars, sets and stage hands of the films in which he had participated. The originals were kept by the Archive but they made copies of the photos and these are with the other keepsakes of Sydney. During the visit, Doady also met by chance the biographer of the film director Samuelson who had been commissioned by Samuelson's son. Sydney had worked under Samuelson at their studios in Isleworth.

Among Sydney's keepsakes is a letter from a fan praising his acting and noting that an article in the Motion Picture Studio magazine said that he would soon play in the Harma film 'The Corner Man'. There is correspondence and memorabilia from Quality Film Plays Ltd from 1923. There is also a typed script dated 1924 for a silent film play called 'The Pools of the Past' for Stoll Picture Productions Ltd and with Sydney's name hand-written on the cover. Also some tiny strips of film have survived.

The Samuelson's film company had a holiday camp at Cliftonville in Kent where employees would take their holidays. There are many photos of this period amongst Sydney's keepsakes.

A brief article in The Bioscope of 9 November 1922 succinctly describes Sydney's career in acting.

A picture of Sydney appears in a set of cigarette cards issued by British American Tobacco in 1928 which comprises an alphabetic set of film stars. He jokingly used to tell his friends that the only reason that he was on these was that there was no-one else with a name that began with the letter F.

During the period in which Sydney was in films, he had a Violet Bogay car. When the 'talkies' came along, it is believed that Sydney was offered work if he agreed to move to the USA, but as his wife Vera was not happy at the prospect he declined.

Sydney next went into business with F.E.Bracey into a company called Commercial Films. Their business card reads Specialists in Advertising Cinematography & Patentees of the only efficient day-light projection screen. They had the first such screen which was reputedly located on the facade of Selfridges in Oxford Street, London. However, their claim to the patent was made too soon as someone else had their patent registered first.

Sydney was out of work for some time after leaving films when the industry suddenly declined. He considered, at one stage, emigrating to Australia. The family were ready to go but, for some reason, they never did. Sydney's make-up box survives with the keepsakes in the possession of his family together with an original box of wigs.