Sydney Albert 'Syd' Middleton DSO, OBE (24 February 1884 – 2 September 1945) was an Australian Army officer and national representative rugby union player and rower.

He was selected in Australia's inaugural national rugby team to tour the northern hemisphere – Dr Paddy Moran's First Wallabies.

Australia had already beaten Cornwall, the British county champions, early in the tour, and Scotland, Ireland and France had all turned down the Rugby Football Union's invitation to participate in the Olympic bouts.

At the tour's end, McKivat would lead fourteen of the Wallabies into the professional ranks with the fledgling rugby league code in Sydney, but Middleton was not interested.

[5] In 1912, he was a member of the Australian men's eight, which, racing as a Sydney Rowing Club entrant, won the Grand Challenge Cup on the River Thames at the Henley Royal Regatta.

on 14 May 1918 east of Heilly, near Amiens when the enemy made a very determined attack on the front held by the 17th Bttn and the manner in which he handled the situation and quickly restored the line showed great initiative and leadership.

"[citation needed] Middleton wrote from Gallipoli to the sporting journal The Referee: There are dozens of footballers of lesser fame and lower grades knocking about.

[10] Middleton took a keen interest in the trials and selection of the overall rowing squad as they began to assemble in February 1919 to train for the 1919 Henley Royal Peace Regatta planned for July 1919.

[11] Middleton had met Marion Streatfield, a nurse, when at the war's end, having commenced his work with the Sports Control Board, he was admitted to the 10th British Red Cross Hospital in Le Treport, France, suffering from catarrhal jaundice.