Name
John Harry Smith
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
03/09/1916
23
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
3630
Australian Infantry, A.I.F.
51st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
VILLERS-BRETONNEUX MEMORIAL
France
UK & Other Memorials
St Mary the Virgin Church Memorial, Little Wymondley
Location 154 Commemorative Area Australian War Memorial, Canberra, Australia.
Pre War
John was born in 1892 in Little Wymondley. The son of William Horace Smith and Elizabeth Smith (nee Brazier). He was Baptised on the 12th March 1893, in Little Wymondley. The 1901 census recorded John aged 8, living in Little Wymondley, with his parents, brother William14, and three sisters Julia 12, Alice 10 and Elizabeth 3. John would later emigrate to Australia.
Wartime Service
John enlisted into the Australian Infantry. His Attestation Papers record he enlisted in Blackboy Hill, Western Australia in September 1915. He was in training from September 1915 to January 1916, in Australia. On the 11th January 1916, he embarked at Fremantle W.A. for Tel-El-Kebir, Training Centre, in Egypt. He was posted to the 51st Battalion, Australian Infantry on the 3rd March 1916. (Tel-El-Kebir was a Training Centre in Egypt, for the 1st Australian Imperial Force, also used during the Gallipoli landings). John embarked with his Battalion at Alexandria, Egypt for France, landing in Marseilles, France, on the 12th June 1916. He was Killed in Action on the 3rd September 1916, at the Battle of Mouquet Farm (10th August to 26th September 1916). The Battalion suffered casualties to a third of its strength. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial to the Australian missing.
Additional Information
The 51st Battalion was raised in Egypt in the first week of March 1916. Approximately half the men were Gallipoli Veterans from the 11th Battalion, the other half were fresh reinforcements from Australia. Mostly men from Western Australia. The 51st Battal
Acknowledgments
Stuart Osborne, National Archives of Australia.
