Royal Air Force
Thomas Alfred Victor Smart was born at Chalford on 16 August 1897, the son of Alfred and Mary Ann Smart, who at the time of the 1911 Census lived at Clacton Cottage, Tetbury Street, Minchinhampton. Alfred Smart was a road man and Thomas was their only child.
After leaving school Thomas became an electrician and enlisted at the age of 20, for the duration of hostilities, into the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). He was ranked as an Air Mechanic Second Class. He may have taken up his first posting on 1 April 1918, the day when the RNAS merged with the Royal Flying Corps to become the Royal Air Force (RAF). He is noted in the CWGC Register as being with 133rd Squadron when he died and at that time they were based at RAF Ternhill in Shropshire, a training unit for the Handley Page 0/400 bomber.
His military service lasted slightly less than two months, as he died, in Stroud, on 3 May 1918, age 20. The cause of death according to a recently released Pension Record Card, was spotted fever (a tick-borne disease which presents on the skin).
Curiously, the National Probate Calendar records that his mother died the same day, although, oddly, administration was not awarded until 28 April 1923. According to the CWGC Register Alfred Smart lived at Field View, France Lynch, when this was compiled in the early 1920s.
Thomas Smart has a standard CWGC headstone marking his grave in the graveyard of France Lynch (St John the Baptist) Church.
Researched by Graham Adams 1 April 2014 (revised 9 August 2021)