Name
John Daniel Smee
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
22/10/1915
28
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Corporal
3642
London Regiment (Queen's Westminster Rifles)
16th (County of London) Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
POTIJZE BURIAL GROUND CEMETERY
W. 21.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
St Edmunds College Memorial, Old Hall Green
Biography
The following text was transcribed from the The Edmundian (1814-1819) – The contemporary magazine of St Edmund’s College:
Another life, full of good in the past, and of promise for the future, has hen cut short by the death of Sergeant John Smee. He had been a student for a short time at the College, which he left. in 1901, and then for some years was with a firm. of lawyers. Some time back he enlisted trans motives of duty to his country in the First 16th London Regiment, Queen's Westminsters and went to the front in September, having already risen to the rank of Sergeant. We are indebted to Mr. john Fitzsimons for the following account of the manner in which he met his death: -
"On the night of the 21st October he was with an officer at a listening post, passing the whole night in a trench. At daylight on the 22nd they got out with the object of returning to their quarters, when he was struck in the head by a bullet from a machine gun. At the burial a priest officiated, and when writing to Mrs. Smee he told her that he had said Mass for the repose of the soul of her son. His commanding officer wrote that Sergeant Smee was quite the best of the draft that had recently come to France.
John Smee was an all-round sportsman, and a good chess player. As an organiser he has left the witness of the Catholic Sporting Club in the parishes of Kilburn, Cricklewood and Willesden, known as the Athenian Club, which owed its origin to him."
As is recorded in another column, the Community Mass was offered on his behalf as soon as the news of his death reached the College; and we continue to pray that a life so full of good to others, laid down in a spirit of complete sacrifice, May be well rewarded in the next world, and even a source of consolation to his relatives and many friends.
Acknowledgments
Jonty Wild, Di Vanderson, The Edmundian (1814-1819) – The contemporary magazine of St Edmund’s College
