Fred Smith
- Family History
- Military History
- Extra Information
- Photographs
Fred Smith, the son of William and Hannah Mary Smith, née Lee. was born in Sheffield in 1897. At the time his father was employed as a coal carter. Fred had an elder brother named George who had been born in Sheffield four years earlier. The family of four soon moved to Sturton by Stow, Lincolnshire, (the birthplace of William) where he took on farm labouring and in 1906 added a baby girl to the family called Eleanor .In 1911, Fred was age 15 and working as a farm labourer. When he enlisted for the war, he is recorded as resident at Littleborough.
It is unfortunate that his soldiers record and medal citation has not survived. His remaining scant records show us that he enlisted at Retford in the Lincolnshire Regt. No. 15457. He became transferred to the 9th Essex and served in France at a time when the Allied Fifth Army was driven back by overwhelming numbers across the former Somme battlefields. He was awarded the Military Medal and bar at an unknown time in his army career. As he has no known grave, he is Commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial. The Memorial commemorates over 14,000 casualties of the United Kingdom and 300 of the South African Forces who have no known grave and who died on the Somme from 21 March to 7 August 1918.
CWG additional information:- Son of William and Hannah Mary Smith, of Old Vicarage, South Leverton, Retford, Notts. Research by Colin Dannatt
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