2nd Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment
Henry Thomas Smith was born in the parish of St Marks, Gloucester in 1894, the son of Henry Jesse Smith, a labourer, who probably worked at Gloucester Docks and his wife Alice. The couple had twelve children, of whom 10 were surviving at the time of the 1911 Census. Henry was the eldest of the surviving children and the family lived at 14 Union Street. His occupation was noted on the census as ‘general labourer’. At some point prior to this he had, according to his funeral report in the Cheltenham Chronicle of 13 February 1915, been a ‘newsboy’ with the Gloucester Citizen, a tradition maintained by his brothers, Jesse Ernest and Reuben Daniel.
Unfortunately Henry Smith’s Army Service Record was one of those destroyed by enemy action in 1940. However, his Medal Index Card at the National Archives states that he went to France on 19 December 1914 and as the CWGC Register records that he served with the 2nd Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment, some reasonable assumptions can be made as to his Army service.
The 2nd Battalion was a Regular Army battalion and at the outbreak of war was located in China and was ordered to India. Whilst at sea off Shanghai it was ordered to proceed to England. It seems highly likely that Smith had joined the Army prior to the war and had turned from being a labourer into a regular serving soldier.
British Battalions in France & Belgium 1914 and British Battalions on the Western Front January to June 1915, both by Ray Westlake enable us to put together a picture of the action seen by Private Smith, during his short Great War Army career.
The 2nd Gloucesters arrived at Southampton on 8 November 1914 and went into camp near Winchester, joining the 81st Brigade of 27 Division. They left for Southampton on 18 December 1914 and embarked for Le Havre, France on board the SS City of Chester. The remainder of December was spent at Aire-sur-la-Lys. On 7 January 1915 the battalion set out to march forward to Dickebusch in the Ypres salient. On the night of 10/11 January, in pouring rain they relieved the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry in the front line near St Eloi.
For the remainder of January the battalion was in and out of the line at such places as Dickebusch, Mount Kokereele, Voormezeele and Westoutre, in mostly wet and cold conditions. During that month the battalion lost 4 killed and 31 wounded and it appears likely that Private Henry Smith was one of the latter.
According to the Cheltenham Chronicle of 13 February 1915 he died (on 5 February, aged 21) at Netley Hospital (Southampton) ‘from wounds in the head received at Dixmuide’. The newspaper has confused ‘Dickebusch’ with ‘Dixmuide’, as there is no evidence in the battalion war diary of presence at the latter. This newspaper report states that Henry Smith lived at 4 Suffolk Street, Gloucester (the address shown in the CWGC Register) and that he was one of four brothers serving.
Private Henry Smith was buried in Gloucester Old Cemetery, where a CWGC headstone marks his grave.
Researched by Graham Adams 9 June 2014