| Regimental number | 3616 |
| Place of birth | Marrickville, New South Wales |
| School | Marrickville Public School, New South Wales |
| Religion | Church of England |
| Occupation | Warehouseman |
| Address | Rippevale, Wemyss Street, Marrickville, New South Wales |
| Marital status | Single |
| Age at embarkation | 21 |
| Height | 5' 4.5" |
| Weight | 133 lbs |
| Next of kin | Father, W Smith, Rippevale, Wemyss Street, Marrickville, New South Wales |
| Previous military service | Served in the Citizen Military Forces. |
| Enlistment date | |
| Rank on enlistment | Private |
| Unit name | 17th Battalion, 8th Reinforcement |
| AWM Embarkation Roll number | 23/34/2 |
| Embarkation details | Unit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A60 Aeneas on |
| Rank from Nominal Roll | Private |
| Unit from Nominal Roll | 53rd Battalion |
| Fate | Killed in Action |
| Place of death or wounding | Menin Road, Ypres, Belgium |
| Age at death | 22 |
| Age at death from cemetery records | 22 |
| Place of burial | No known grave |
| Commemoration details | The Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 29), Belgium The Menin Gate Memorial (so named because the road led to the town of Menin) was constructed on the site of a gateway in the eastern walls of the old Flemish town of Ypres, Belgium, where hundreds of thousands of allied troops passed on their way to the front, the Ypres salient, the site from April 1915 to the end of the war of some of the fiercest fighting of the war. The Memorial was conceived as a monument to the 350,000 men of the British Empire who fought in the campaign. Inside the arch, on tablets of Portland stone, are inscribed the names of 56,000 men, including 6,178 Australians, who served in the Ypres campaign and who have no known grave. The opening of the Menin Gate Memorial on 24 July 1927 so moved the Australian artist Will Longstaff that he painted 'The Menin Gate at Midnight', which portrays a ghostly army of the dead marching past the Menin Gate. The painting now hangs in the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, at the entrance of which are two medieval stone lions presented to the Memorial by the City of Ypres in 1936. Since the 1930s, with the brief interval of the German occupation in the Second World War, the City of Ypres has conducted a ceremony at the Memorial at dusk each evening to commemorate those who died in the Ypres campaign. |
| Panel number, Roll of Honour, Australian War Memorial | 158 |
| Miscellaneous information from cemetery records | Parents: William and Elizabeth SMITH, Wemyss Street, Marrickville, Sydney. Native of Marrickville, Sydney |
| Other details |
War service: taken on strength, 53rd Bn, Ismailia, 3 April 1916. Proceeded from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 19 June 1916; disembarked Marseilles, 28 June 1916. On Command at Divisional Gas School, 4 August 1916; rejoined Bn, 9 August 1916. Promoted Temporary Corporal, 4 September 1916; Corporal, 20 October 1916; Sergeant, 20 October 1916. Admitted to 15th Field Ambulance, 21 December 1916 (trench feet and septic heel); transferred to 36th Casualty Clearing Station, 21 December 1916; to 4th General Hospital, Camiers, 23 December 1916; to England on board Hospital Ship 'Warilda', 28 December 1916, and admitted to Guildford War Hospital, 29 December 1916. Transferred to 3rd Auxiliary Hospital, Dartford, 13 February 1917. Discharged on furlough, 5 March 1917, to report to Training Depot, Wareham, 20 March 1917. Marched out to No. 6 Camp, Perham Downs, 20 April 1917. Qualified as instructor at Physical Training and Bayonet Fighting School, 25 May 1917. Proceeded overseas to France, 19 September 1917; rejoined 53rd Bn, 2 October 1917. Killed in action, 2t October 1917. Medals: British War Medal, Victory Medal |