Name
Edward George Smith
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
30/10/1916
23
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
1826
Hertfordshire Regiment
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
CONNAUGHT CEMETERY, THIEPVAL
X. A. 4
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Ware Town Memorial, St Mary’s Church Memorial, Ware, Hertfordshire Regimental Memorial, All Saints Church, Hertford, Not on the Stanstead Abbotts memorials
Pre War
Born in 1893 and baptised on 29 Oct 1893 in Stanstead Abbotts to parents William and Mary. He had four brothers and five sisters.
The family had moved to Musley Hill in Ware by 1901 and in April 1911 were living at number 168, Musley Hill, his father was shown as being a lift labourer at Allen & Hanbury Mftg Chemists and Edward was a mill hand.
Enlisted in the 1st Battalion, Hertfordshire Regt, as a Territorial on 18 October 1911.
Enlisted at Ware.
Wartime Service
On 5th August 1914 the 1st Battalion was embodied for war service and moved to Bury St Edmunds where they remained for two months.
They left there on 5th November and went to Le Havre in France via Southampton.
They were part of the 4th Guards Brigade and were sometimes known as the Hertfordshire Guards.
On arrival they were sent to Hooge in Belgium. In 1915 they fought at Cuinchy in February, at Festubert in May and at Loos in September.
The following year they fought at the Somme and were involved in action at battles for the Ancre Heights and the Schwaben Redoubt. Edward was killed on 30th October, the day that his unit left the front line in Belgium suffering their first casualties as they passed through Hooge.
Acknowledgments
Malcolm Lennox, Terry & Glenis Collins, Jonty Wild
