[a] As a member of a poor family, he received no formal education, and took on paid work from an early age.
Four of the men, including Sykes, were found guilty of manslaughter, and received life sentences with a minimum of twenty years of penal servitude.
On arrival Sykes was assigned a number, 9589, and recorded as "about five feet six and three-quarter inches in height, with light brown hair, grey eyes, an oval visage of light complexion, and in appearance healthy";[2]: xvi shortly afterwards he was sent to Bunbury to work on the roads.
Late in December 1890, he was found lying ill in his hut on the Clackline railway; he was removed to Newcastle Hospital, where he was diagnosed as suffering from a hepatitic ulcer and chronic hepatitis.
[2]: 111 His few belongings, including an old gun and his dog, were sold to recoup the £2/15/- that it cost the government to provide the coffin.
Sykes may have remained a historically insignificant character, if not for the discovery in 1931 of a collection of letters written to him by his wife.