Name
Hugh Francis Russell-Smith
11 Aug 1877
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
05/07/1916
28
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Captain
Rifle Brigade
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ST. SEVER CEMETERY, ROUEN
Officers, A. 3. 10.
France
Headstone Inscription
No Report
UK & Other Memorials
Christchurch Memorial, Little Heath, Potters Bar, Little Heath & Bentley Heath Memorial, Potters Bar, All Souls Chapel Book of Remembrance, Potters Bar, Not aware of any North Mymms Memorials
Pre War
Hugh Francis Russell Smith was born in Highbury on 11 Aug 1887 the second son of Henry Russell Smith, analytical chemist, and Ellen (nee Goodman). On the 1891 Census the family of father, William (born 1887), Hugh, Denham (born 1889) and Elsie Mary (born 1891) and 4 domestic servants were living at 1 Aubert Road, Highbury Islington.
On the 1901 Census the family of Parents, Elsie and Alan (born 1893) were living at East View, Granville Road, Broadstairs. Hugh attended Rugby School from 1901 to 1906. He won a Classical Scholarship to St. John’s College, Cambridge. He obtained a Second in Part I of the Classical Tripos in 1909 and a First in Part II of the Historical Tripos in 1910. He also won the Winchester Reading Prize and the Thirlwall Prize for a dissertation on “The Theory of Religious Liberty in the Reigns of Charles II and James II” which he published in 1912. He was elected an Allen Scholar, and a Fellow of St. John’s, and appointed a Lecturer on Political Science. A close friend of the poet Rupert Brooke at Rugby and at Cambridge.
Hugh married Dorothy Catharine Willett Tait in 1914. There would be a son, Roy Sabine Russell Smith (born 1 Jul 1915).
Hugh’s parents came to live at Heathside, Little Heath, Potters Bar.
Wartime Service
Hugh was commissioned as 2nd Lieutenant 21 Jan 1915 from Cadet Serjeant Senior Division, Cambridge Officers Training Corps, Cambridge University. He was appointed to 6th (Reserve) Battalion, Rifle Brigade in April 1915. He went to France on 25 Oct 1915 and attached to 1st Battalion. Hugh was promoted to Captain in Jan 1916. The 1st Battalion, part of 11 Brigade, 4 Division, were to take part in the Battle of Albert (the opening Battle of the Somme).On the 1 Jul 1916 4 Division attacked the Redan Ridge at Beaumont Hamel. Heavy Casualties were suffered by the Battalion -20 Officers and 456 other Rank. Hugh was hit by shrapnel and although evacuated he died of his wound at No 2 British Red Cross Hospital, Rouen.
The Colonel of the 6th Battalion wrote :- “We shall all feel his loss very much. He had been doing splendid work with the 1st Battalion. I had a letter from the Colonel Commanding the 1st Battalion a short time ago recommending him for promotion and saying that he was a most capable Officer and in every way fit to command a Company.”
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper
Martin Cope
