Name
Cecil Smeatham
20 May 1889
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
24/10/1914
25
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lieutenant
Leicestershire Regiment
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star, British War and Victory Medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
BAILLEUL COMMUNAL CEMETERY, NORD
C. 7.
France
Headstone Inscription
THANKS BE UNTO GOD WHO GIVETH US THE VICTORY THROUGH JESUS CHRIST
UK & Other Memorials
St John the Evangelist Church Memorial, Boxmoor, Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial, St Mary's Church Memorial, Hemel Hempstead, St Mary's Church Memorial Window & Plaque, Hemel Hempstead, Lockers Park School Memorial, Hemel Hempstead, Rugby School Memorial Chapel
Pre War
Cecil Smeathman was born on 20 May 1889 in Hemel Hempstead, the youngest of three sons of Lovel and Frances Smeathman, and baptised at St Mary's Church, Hemel Hempstead on 11 August 1889.
On the 1891 Census the family were living at 51 Piccotts End, Hemel Hempstead, where his father was a solicitor. By 1901 he was listed as a boarder at Lockers Park School, Hemel Hempstead along with his brother Julian.
He entered Rugby School in 1903, and won his Football Cap in 1907. He then went on to University College, Oxford, in 1908 joining the Leicestershire Regiment as a university candidate, taking up his position as a 2nd Lieutenant on graduation. At Oxford he was a member of the Officer Training Corps. He was awarded a BA degree in 1911 and joined his regiment on 19 September 1911, being promoted to Lieutenant on 15 May 1913.
On the night of the 1911 Census he was at home with his parents and two brothers at South Hill, Heath Lane, Hempstead and was listed as a scholar (Oxford).
(N.B. The Smeathman family were prominent citizens of Hemel Hempstead. Cecil's father was a solicitor and JP and was made the first Freeman of the Borough in 1929 for his long public service to the town, having been Town Clerk and a member of numerous local committees.)
Wartime Service
He was a serving officer with the 1st Battalion, Leicestershire Regiment at the outbreak of war, when the Battalion were in Fermoy, Ireland, but by 9 September 1914 they had embarked for France and landed at Saint-Nazaire on 10 September.
In late October the Battalion was fighting east of Boulogne and Cecil was in trenches at Rue de Bois which were being heavily shelled by shrapnel and heavy howitzer all day. He was wounded by a shell on 23 October and died in the Base Hospital at Bailleul on 24 October 1914, age 25, on the same day that his elder brother, Lieut. J. M. Smeathman was killed. A brother Officer said:—" He was one of the most popular Officers here, and is universally regretted by all of us who survived those four terrible days. His Platoon was terribly upset about him. I know they would have followed him anywhere."
His parents received the news that both sons had died by two telegrams delivered within half an hour of each other.
He is buried at at Bailleul Communal Cemetery, Nord, France.
Additional Information
His father, L Smeathman, South Hill, Hemel Hempstead, Herts., ordered his headstone inscription: "THANKS BE UNTO GOD WHO GIVETH US THE VICTORY THROUGH JESUS CHRIST". His brother Julian died on the same day and is also commemorated on the Hemel Hempstead & Boxmoor Memorials. A memorial service was held at St Mary's Church, Hemel Hempstead in November and later the dedication of a stained glass window in the church, to commemorate the sacrifice made by the two brothers. The plaque under the memorial window at St Mary's, Hemel Hempstead, dedicated to Cecil and his brother Julian, has the inscription "Lovely and pleasant in their lives and in their death they were not divided." Probate was granted to his father Lovel Smeathman, solicitor with effects of £273 5s 11d. His father received a war gratuity of £40. His older brother Lovel Francis Smeathman was wounded on active service with the 1st Battalion, Hertfordshire Regiment but recovered and survived the war.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.hemelheroes.com, www.rugbyschoolarchives.co.uk, www.dacorumheritage.org.uk, www.hemelatwar.org.
