Regimental number | 4326 |
Place of birth | Parramatta, New South Wales |
School | Public School, Chapel Street, New South Wales |
Religion | Church of England |
Occupation | Loco fireman |
Address | Petersham Road, Marrickville, New South Wales |
Marital status | Single |
Age at embarkation | 26 |
Height | 5' 10" |
Weight | 151 lbs |
Next of kin | Father, Mr R Smith, Petersham Road, Marrickville, New South Wales |
Previous military service | Served in the Cadets. |
Enlistment date | |
Date of enlistment from Nominal Roll | |
Rank on enlistment | Private |
Unit name | 4th Battalion, 13th Reinforcement |
AWM Embarkation Roll number | 23/21/4 |
Embarkation details | Unit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A60 Aeneas on |
Rank from Nominal Roll | Private |
Unit from Nominal Roll | 2nd Battalion |
Fate | Killed in Action |
Place of death or wounding | Polygon Wood, Ypres, Belgium |
Age at death | 28 |
Age at death from cemetery records | 28 |
Place of burial | No known grave |
Commemoration details | The Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 7), 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 | 34 |
Miscellaneous information from cemetery records | Parents: Richard and Amelia SMITH, 90 Petersham Road, Marrickville, New South Wales |
Other details |
War service: allotted to and proceeded to join 2nd Bn, Tel el Kebir, 14 February 1916. Proceeded from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 22 March 1916; disembarked Marseilles, 28 March 1916. Wounded in action, 23 July 1916 (gun shot wound, left shoulder); admitted to No. 1 Australian General Hospital, Rouen, 24 July 1916. Transferred to England, 25 July 1916, and admitted to 3rd Western General Hospital, Newport, 26 July 1916. Taken on strength, No. 2 Command Depot, Weymouth, from No. 1 Auxiliary Hospital, Harefield, 11 September 1916; transferred to No. 3 Command Depot, 13 October 1916. Proceeded overseas to France, 11 November 1916; rejoined 2nd Bn, 24 November 1916. Admitted to Anzac Corps Rest Station, 25 January 1917 (trench feet); transferred to No. 6 General Hospital, 18 February 1917; to England, 25 February 1917, and admitted to 1st Southern General Hospital, 27 February 1917; transferred to 3rd Auxiliary Hospital, 23 March 1917; granted furlough, 27 April-12 May 1917, to report to Training Depot, Perham Downs. Found guilty, 12 May 1917, of being absent without leave, 3.30 pm, 12 May, till 3 pm, 15 May 1917: awarded 7 days confined to camp, and forfeited 4 days' pay. Marched out to No. 3 Command Depot, 2 June 1917. Proceeded overseas to France, 16 July 1917; rejoined Bn, 30 July 1917. Killed in action, Belgium, 19 September 1917. Adjutant, 2nd Bn, stated: '[SMITH] was killed instantaneously by shell-fire whilst this unit was in support at POLYGON WOOD, YPRES. He was buried on the parapet close to where he fell (Zouave Trench), a rough wooden cross marking the position.' Medals: British War Medal, Victory Medal |