Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Bookn action at La Bassée, 11 Oct. 1914. =SMITH, TOM=, Private, No. 337, T. Coy., 7th Battn. Australian Imperial Force, _s._ of the late Eli Smith, by his wife, Hannah (now wife of William Ward, of Ginfield Ully, near Dursley; _b._ 18 Aug. 1886; educ. Dursley, co. Gloucester; served some time in the Navy; went to Australia; on the outbreak of war in Aug. 1914, volunteered for Imperial service; served in Egypt and at the Dardanelles, and was killed in action there, 9 May, 1915. His brother was one of the Dursley Volunteers who volunteered for foreign service during the Boer War, and was killed in that campaign. =SMITH, WALTER PALMER=, Stoker, R.N.R., T. 2168., H.M.S. Hawke; lost when that ship was torpedoed in the North Sea, 15 Oct. 1914; _m._ =SMITH, WALTER SIDNEY=, Private, Ports./14879, H.M.S. Good Hope; lost in action off Coronel, on the coast of Chili, 1 Nov. 1914. =SMITH, WALTER WYVILLE=, 2nd Lieut., 9th (Service) Battn. Royal Fusiliers, 2nd _s._ of Robert Harris Smith, late of the Old Manor, Feltham, by his wife, Rosa Louisa, dau. of John Bashford, of Byfleet; _b._ Feltham, co. Middlesex; educ. with the Rev. F. Cavalier at Wramplingham Rectory, and at King's College School, Wimbledon, where he entered the Training Corps, being later Capt. of the Feltham Rifle Club; after the outbreak of war enlisted in the Royal Fusiliers in Sept. 1914, was promoted 2nd Lieut. 30 Dec. 1914, and killed in action at Loos, 18 Oct. 1915; buried Vermelles Cemetery; _unm._ His Commanding Officer, Major S. Gubbins, sent the following account to his parents: "Your son was killed last night about half-past six, while leading a bombing section in an attack which fully gained its objects, and the result of which you will have seen reported in the papers before this reaches you. So well was his work done, and so excellent his plans, that although 200 yards of trench of vital importance to us was gained, hardly any of his men were killed, although nearly all were wounded. Your son's loss is a very heavy blow to the regt., and also to the Division. The qualities he showed were rare, and were far more than mere courage. A bombing officer of the very first class is almost impossible to replace under months of training. Your son was killed instantaneously by a bullet through the heart just as the men had succeeded in capturing the trenches they were attacking. His body is now with his company, and will be taken to-night for burial in ... Cemetery. I hope it may be some consolation to reflect that he died a fine death, the finest death of any in the battn. yet, and that when many before had failed, he was successful. The whole regt. shares your loss." His company officer, Capt. N. B. Ellis Cooper, added: "Your son first of all commanded the company bombers. Our bombers co-operated with those of the Essex regt. in an attack on a German trench. Soon after the attack the officer in charge was wounded, and your son was in command. He displayed the utmost resource and gallantry, and the attack was completely successful before he was finally killed. The attack was a very fine affair, and has brought the utmost credit to our battn., and I think that we owe this credit to your son's skill in training the bomb-throwers previous to the attack, and his gallantry in leading them during the action." [Illustration: =Walter Wyville Smith.=] =SMITH, WILLIAM=, Chief Petty Officer, No. 148381, Royal Navy, eldest _s._ of Alfred William Smith, by his wife, Louisa; _b._ Bridport, co. Dorset, 22 Dec. 1873; educ. at Northallington School, Bridport; joined the Navy, 22 Dec. 1891; served in the Witu Expedition, Aug. 1893 (Ashanti medal with Witu clasp), and in the European War; was lost on H.M.S. Goliath, 13 May, 1915, when that ship was torpedoed at the Dardanelles. He _m._ at Devonport, 27 Dec. 1897, Alice Maud (27, Alexandra Road, Ford), eldest dau. of John Stribley, R.N., and had four children: Alfred William, _b._ 28 Sept. 1899; George Reginald, _b._ 25 Oct. 1906; Ernest Leslie, _b._ 5 July, 1909, and Phylis Dorrien, _b._ 5 Jan. 1915. =SMITH, WILLIAM EDMUND=, Officer's Cook, 1st Class, 1874, H.M.S. Aboukir; lost in action in the North Sea, 22 Sept. 1914. =SMITH, WILLIAM GERALD FURNESS=, Lieut., 3rd, attd. 1st, Battn. North Staffordshire Regt., 2nd _s._ of the Rev. George Furness Smith, M.A. (Oxon.), of 14, Riverdale Road, East Twickenham, Chaplain of Royal Naval School, East Twickenham, and Editorial Secretary of Church Missionary Society (1893-1915), by his wife, Elizabeth, dau. of William Armstrong Hayes, of Edmondstown Park, Rathfarnham, co. Dublin; _b._ Surbiton, co. Surrey, 7 July, 1888; educ. Birkenhead School, Clare College, and Ridley Hall, Cambridge. He took his B.A. (2nd Class Classical Tripos) in 1910, with a second Class in the Theological Tripos in the next year; in Dec. 1911 he went to India to serve on the staff of St. John's College, Agra, where Bishop Durrant subsequently testified to the value of his influence and his teaching ability; on returning to England in 1913 he became a tutor at St. Aidan's Theological College, Birkenhead, and was to have been ordained Deacon in Sept. 1914, but having been a member of the O.T.C., he volunteered, and enlisted in the Public Schools' Battn. After a few weeks' training at Epsom, he was gazetted 2nd Lieut., North Staffordshire Regt., 6 Oct. 1914, left for France 16 March, 1915, and was promoted Lieut. 24 June the same year. He died of wounds received in action close to Ypres, after recovering a trench when in charge of a party of bomb-throwers, 5 July, 1915. The following passage in F.M. Sir John French's Report, dated 6 July, appears to refer to this: "On the morning of the 5th a party of Germans rushed a barricade on the Ypres-Roulers railway after a two hours' artillery bombardment, but a prompt attack by our troops immediately recaptured the positions." Lieut. Smith was buried in the military cemetery, close to Poljitze, about one mile north-east of Ypres; _unm._ Gen. Allenby wrote to Gen. Sir John Keir: "Will you please convey to the officers commanding the North Staffordshire Regt. our appreciation of, and gratitude for, the gallant behaviour of Lieut. Smith of that regt., with his grenadier party who came to the support of the 41st Brigade yesterday morning, and in a counter attack on the Germans who had demolished a barricade and rushed a trench in the left of our line. I would also express our deep sorrow on hearing that this brave officer has died of his wounds, and would offer our sympathy to his regt." In forwarding this to Gen. Harper, Sir John Keir wrote: "Will you please communicate this to the officer commanding North Staffordshire Regt., and say how well deserved I know this appreciation to be. I hope to see Col. de Falbe personally to express to him my feeling with regard to the good work done by this fine battn. I sympathise in the sad loss they have sustained." [Illustration: =William G. F. Smith.=] =SMITH, WILLIAM HENRY=, Mechanici |