BORN HULL 1895. SON OF JOSHUA & CLARA SMITH – 5 DEIGHTON TERRACE, PORTER STREET, HULL AND 197 HESSLE ROAD, HULL (WAR PENSION ADDRESSES). ENLISTED IN THE HULL PALS. KILLED IN ACTION, ON 21/08/1917, AGED 22. HIS NAME IS RECORDED ON THE SOUTHCOATES LANE MEMORIAL.
It is known that he enlisted at Hull City Hall, on Monday 7th September 1914, just by his regimental number. That was the first day of recruitment for the 2nd Hull Pals Battalion, the 11th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, nicknamed ‘The Tradesmen’, seen as further down the social ladder than the men of the 10th Battalion, ‘The Commercials’. If he managed to avoid a serious wound, or a spell in prison, then he will have been a veteran of Egypt, the Somme and Oppy Wood, but his luck ran out at Vimy Ridge. This William Smith was killed in action on 21st August 1917 and buried at New Irish Farm Cemetery. This particular cemetery was very small at the time of the Armistice and enlarged in the months and years after as bodies were exhumed from smaller plots on the surrounding battlefields and taken there for reburial. Perhaps William was among the original graves and his rest undisturbed, perhaps not?
Smith, William
First name:
WILLIAM
Military Number:
228
Rank:
Private
Date Died
21/08/1917
Place died:
New Irish Farm Cemetery Location: West-Vlaanderen, Belgium
Age:
22
