Hull Pals Memorial Post. CPL, JOHN ARTHUR SMITH, MM, 12/234. Born in April 1891 in Rochester, Kent. John was the eldest of seven children to Edward and Annie Smith of 170 Cleveland Street, Hull and 4 Nornabell Street, Holderness Road, Hull (War pension address). A railway Labourer before the war, he enlisted at City Hall on 15th September 1914 joining the 12th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, ‘The Sportsmen’, 3rd Hull Pals. One of the Originals, he trained throughout 1915 serving in Egypt from December until March 1916 when the Pals left Port Said for Marseilles and the slow slog north to the trenches of the Western Front. John was a veteran of the Somme, Oppy Wood and Arras, the German Spring Offensive, and despite being wounded in the back in August 1918, was soon back in the front line though now a part of the 11th, the 12th having merged with its sister battalion back in February. John Arthur Smith was killed in action opposite Soyer Farm on 6th September 1918 and buried in Pont D’Achelles Military Cemetery, Nieppe. He was posthumously awarded the Military Medal; a young man of 27.
