Name
Norman Samuel Smith
1893
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
31/07/1917
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
235252
Royal Welsh Fusiliers
17th Bn
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Mentioned in Despatches
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL
Panel 22.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Baldock Town Memorial, St Mary the Virgin Church Memorial, Baldock, Letchworth Town Memorial, Not listed on the Hertfordshire Regimental Memorial, All Saints Church, Hertford, Not on the Stevenage memorials
Pre War
Norman Samuel Smith was born in Whatlington, Sussex in 1893, the son of Samuel and Clara Smith and one of three children, with an older sister Mabel and younger brother Frederick. He was baptised on 1 October 1893 at nearby Sedlescombe Church, Sussex.
On the 1901 Census the family were living at Hancot Farm Cottages, Whatlington and his father was working as a gardener domestic. By the 1911 Census they had moved to Stoneleigh, Ruspidge, Cinderford, Gloucestershire and Norman was working as a crown workman.
He was living at Hitchin Lane, Weston, nr Stevenage at the time of enlistment and had worked at the Letchworth Co-operative Stores before the war. A newspaper reporting his death recorded Norman as "of Baldock" and his father's address on pension records was given as 14 Pembroke Road, Baldock, Herts.
Wartime Service
He enlisted in Hitchin, Hertfordshire on 10 November 1915 and initially joined the Hertfordshire Regiment under reg. no. 5934 and was sent to France on 5 July 1916. It is likely he fought in the Battle of Ancre Heights in October (part of the Battle of the Somme).
On 21 July 1917 he was transferred to the 17th Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers. It was initially believed that Norman was killed in action on 16 August 1917 during the Third Battle of Ypres, otherwise known as Passchendale, but it was later confirmed that he was either killed in action or died of wounds on 31 July 1917, the first day of the battle.
Norman has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium.
Additional Information
His father received a war gratuity of £7 and pay owing of £4 4s 7d. He also received a pension of 4s 6d a week, which later rose to 5 shillings a week from 6 November 1918.
Norman is commemorated on a family headstone in Baldock Cemetery, his inscription reads:
". .. ALSO OF NORMAN SAMUEL, HIS SON (SAMUEL SMITH) KILLED AT YPRES JULY 31ST 1917. AGED 24 YEARS.
SLEEP ON BELOVED, SLEEP, AND TAKE THY REST, LAY DOWN THE HEAD UPON THY SAVIOURS BREAST, WE LOVE THEE WELL, BUT JESUS LOVES THEE BEST, GOOD NIGHT."
Acknowledgments
Derry Warners, Brenda Palmer
Adrian Pitts, Paul Johnson, Jonty Wild
