Name
David Paul Smith
Conflict
Second World War
Date of Death / Age
11/09/1943
23
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Gunner
925387
Royal Artillery
148 (The Bedfordshire Yeo.) Field Regt.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
CHUNGKAI WAR CEMETERY
5. B. 3.
Thailand
Headstone Inscription
WE ONLY KNOW HE CANNOT DRIFT BEYOND GOD'S LOVE AND CARE
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial, St. John's War Memorial, St. Mary's Church, Hitchin, Hitchin Roll of Honour 1939 – 1945 (Book) St Mary’s Church, Hitchin
Biography
On the Hitchin War Memorial he is shown as having only the initial ‘D’. He was born in Lincolnshire but was educated at Barton-le-Clay School and was an old boy of St. Mary's School in Hitchin. Before joining up whilst resident in Bedfordshire, he had worked for the Cundall Folding Machine Company of Luton and played football in the works team. He was keen on both football and cricket. He became a Territorial in 512 Battery of the !48th (Bedfordshire Yeomanry) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery and went to the Far East at the end of 1941. His Service Number was 925387. The unit was equipped with 24 x 25 pounder field guns.
They arrived in Singapore on the 29th January 1942 and were positioned in the north of Singapore Island. After the fall of Singapore in February 1942 his family only had two postcards from him. He was for a time at the notorious Japanese Malai Prison Camp and died of fever. The news was received later from a prisoner, Gnr W. H. Emmett, who escaped after a Japanese prison ship was sunk in the Pacific. 104 men of the Regiment died in Singapore or in captivity.
He is buried in Plot 5, Row B, Grave 3 in the Chungkai War Cemetery in Thailand. A private inscription on the stone reads "We only know he cannot drift beyond God's love and care".
He was the only son of Matthew and Kate Smith of St. Guthlac, Highbury, Hitchin, although they also seem to have lived in Barton-le-Clay.
Acknowledgments
David C Baines – ‘Hitchin’s Century of Sacrifice’, ‘History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery - Far East Theatre - 1941-1946’ by M. Farndale, Herts Pictorial dated l 5 June 194 3 & 12 Dec 1944, Herts & Beds Express dated 2 Dec 1944
