Name
Frank Smith
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
24/09/1916
20
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
19531
Bedfordshire Regiment
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier and Face 2C
France
Headstone Inscription
Son of George and Julia Smith of Little Almshose, Hitchin, Herts
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial,
St Mary's Church Roll of Honour (Book), Hitchin,
St Ippolyts Village Memorial,
Roll of Honour, St Ippolyts Church,
We are not aware of any Little Almshoe memorial
Pre War
Frank was born in 1897, in St Ippolyts, Herts. The son of George Smith a Publican and Julia Smith.
The 1901 Census records Frank aged 4, living with his parents, at the Jolly Tailor P.H. in St Ippolyts, Herts. and the 1911 Census records Frank aged 13, at school, living with his parents in Little Almshose, St Ippolyts, Herts.
Wartime Service
Frank enlisted in Hitchin, he was posted to the 1st Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, with the service number 19531.
He was Killed in Action on the 24th September 1916; he has no known grave, but is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial to the missing. On the day of his death, the Battalion secured Oxford Copse and moved to Chimpanzee Trench with the objective to capture the Sunken Road, which they did. There were 114 casualties in the Battalion that day, Frank being one of them.
Additional Information
His personal inscription on the headstone reads: “Son of George and Julia Smith of Little Almshose, Hitchin, Herts”. Franks elder Brother Sidney George Smith was Killed in Action on the 29th April 1917, he has no known grave and is Remembered on the Arras Memorial to the missing.
Acknowledgments
Adrian Dunne, David C Baines, Stuart Osborne, Jonty Wild
