2nd Lieut Ralph Henry Smith

• Age: 21
• From: Birkenhead, Cheshire
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 17th Btn
• K.I.A Sunday 30th July 1916
• Commemorated at: Guillemont Rd Cem
  Panel Ref: II.O.4

Ralph Henry Smith was born in Birkenhead on 07th February 1895 the son of Henry Dodwell Smith (b. Manchester 1859) and Ethel Catherine Jane Smith (nee Worrall) born in Clonmel, Tipperary in 1862 - they married on the 3rd April 1894 at St Mary’s, West Derby, his father, aged 35, occupation given as bank manager of 20 Judges Drive, Newsham Park, and the son of a Bank of England chief clerk, and his mother aged 32 of Sevenoaks, Kent, and the daughter of gentleman William Parsons Worrall deceased.  

Ralph was baptised in St. Saviour's Church, Oxton, on 15th March 1895. They had one other child, Brian Worrall Smith, who was born in 1897.

The 1901 Census records that the family was living at 'Leenane', 11 Kingsmead Road South, Oxton, Birkenhead; they were still living at this address at the time of the Great War. Father Henry Smith was aged 42, born in Manchester and the manager of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Bank, in Castle Street, Liverpool, mother was aged 39, Ralph was aged 6 and brother Brian W. aged 4. The family was relatively affluent employing three servants.   

Ralph was educated at Dunchurch Hall, Warwickshire and Uppingham School, Rutland (where, for three years, he was a member of the Officer Training Corps) and began his business career in January 1913 as a clerk with Messrs Stewart, Thompson & Co, merchants of Manchester. 

In 1911 his parents are at the same address, with two servants.  Ralph, 16, is a boarding pupil in Uppingham School, Rutland, and Brian, 13, is a pupil at Dunchurch Hall, Warwickshire.

On 03rd September 1914 Ralph enlisted at St George's Hall in Liverpool as Private No 15227 joining the 17th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment [1st Liverpool Pals]. At enlistment he was described as a clerk, height 6' 1", weight 147lbs, complexion fresh, eyes grey, hair brown, religion Church of England.

On 05th December 1914 he was appointed unpaid Lance Corporal being discharged to a commission in his Battalion on 12th February 1915. He crossed to France with the Battalion on 07th November 1915 attached to 'C' Company.

On 11 January 1916, at Maricourt, he was wounded in the face by shrapnel when some twenty shells fell in the village and was evacuated to No. 98 Field Ambulance, from there to No.5 Casualty Clearing Station at Corbie and thence to the Prince of Wales Own Hospital Rouen. He was discharged from hospital on 01st February 1916, and eventually rejoined the Battalion on 05th March when it was at Etineham, near Maricourt. He attended a course at 30 Divisional Engineering School from 26th March until 10th April, and was granted leave from 14th to 20th May 1916.

Ralph was killed in action on 30 July 1916 during the attack on Guillemont. The 17th Battalion was in support of the 19th and 20th Battalions, two Companies behind each. The attack took place in thick mist and was pressed home with great heroism. Some objectives were taken, but other unsuccessful assaults left the flanks of the Battalion exposed. Fierce enfilading machine-gun fire from the village of Guillemont itself and from Trones Wood meant that the objectives were impossible to take, although by the evening of the 30th, about three hundred yards in depth had been gained all along the line of attack. The 17th Battalion lost one hundred and thirteen officers and men killed, including Second-Lieutenant Smith.

17th Battalion Diary 30th July 1916

The Battalion was in support to 19 & 20 Battalions K.L.R. 2 Coys. behind 19th & 2 Coys. behind 20th. Very thick mist. The attack was pushed home to the objective in places but in the main was held up by machine gun fire from hidden machine guns.

Fighting continued all day swaying backwards and forwards until by 6pm about 300 yards in depth had been gained & consolidated all along our front.

Casualties in the 17th Battalion were 15 Officers and 281 Other Ranks

Further details are reported in more detailed by Everard Wyrall in his book The History of the King’s Regiment (Liverpool) 1914-1919 Volume II 1916-1917

The 17th King’s had advanced (two companies each behind the 19th and 20th Battalions) in small columns. They too suffered heavily from machine-gun fire and were quickly absorbed into the waves that preceded them. They also shared the gains and losses of that terrible day.

When darkness fell on the battlefield the 30th Division held a line from the railway on the eastern side of Trones Wood , southwards and including Arrow Head Copse, to east of Maltz Horn Farm. On this line the division was relieved by the 55th Division during the early hours of the 31st July. 

The events of 30th July 1916 were regarded at the time as Liverpool’s blackest day. There follows an extract from The History of the 89th Brigade written by Brigadier General Ferdinand Stanley which gives an indication of the events of the day.

Guillemont

Well the hour to advance came, and of all bad luck in the world it was a thick fog; so thick that you couldn’t see more than about ten yards. It was next to impossible to delay the attack – it was much too big an operation- so forward they had to go. It will give some idea when I say that on one flank we had to go 1,750 yards over big rolling country. Everyone knows what it is like to cross enclosed country which you know really well in a fog and how easy it is to lose your way. Therefore, imagine these rolling hills, with no landmarks and absolutely unknown to anyone. Is it surprising that people lost their way and lost touch with those next to them? As a matter of fact, it was wonderful the way in which many men found their way right to the place we wanted to get to. But as a connected attack it was impossible.

The fog was intense it was practically impossible to keep direction and parties got split up. Owing to the heavy shelling all the Bosches had left their main trenches and were lying out in the open with snipers and machine guns in shell holes, so of course our fellows were the most easy prey.

It is so awfully sad now going about and finding so many splendid fellows gone.

His death was reported in the Liverpool Echo on Wednesday 09 August 1916 

SMITH—JuIy 30, aged 21 years, Ralph H. Smith, second lieutenant King's (Liverpool Regiment), dearly-loved eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. H. D. Smith, Kingsmead-road South, Oxton. 

Also in the Birkenhead News on Saturday 12 August 1916 

Another Oxton Officer Killed.  

SECOND-LIEUT. RALPH H. SMITH. 

Second-Lieut. Ralph H. Smith, of the King's (Liverpool Regt.), was killed in action on the 30th July. He was the son of Mr. and Mrs. H. D. Smith, Kingsmead-road South, Oxton, and was educated at Uppingham. Joining the Army in September, 1914, he made rapid progress in military efficiency, securing the approbation of his superior officers. Before the war he was with Messrs. Stewart, Thompson and Co., Manchester merchants. Mr. H. D. Smith, the father, is the manager of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank, Castle-street, Liverpool. 

His body was originally buried about 500 yards south east of Trones Wood and was later found and reburied by the 29th Divisional Royal Engineers.

After the war his remains were moved and interred in Guillemont Road Cemetery Plot II, Row 0, Grave 4. His headstone bears the epitaph:

"GOD IS LOVE"

Guillemont was an important point in the German defences at the beginning of the Battle of the Somme in July 1916. It was taken by the 2nd Royal Scots Fusiliers on 30 July but the battalion was obliged to fall back, and it was again entered for a short time by the 55th (West Lancashire) Division on 8 August. On 18 August, the village was reached by the 2nd Division, and on 3 September (in the Battle of Guillemont) it was captured and cleared by the 20th (Light) and part of the 16th (Irish) Divisions. It was lost in March 1918 during the German advance, but retaken on 29 August by the 18th and 38th (Welsh) Divisions.

The cemetery was begun by fighting units (mainly of the Guards Division) and field ambulances after the Battle of Guillemont, and was closed in March 1917, when it contained 121 burials. It was greatly increased after the Armistice when graves (almost all of July-September 1916) were brought in from the battlefields immediately surrounding the village and certain smaller cemeteries, including:-

HARDECOURT FRENCH MILITARY CEMETERY. The village of Hardecourt-au-Bois was captured by French troops on the 8th July 1916, and again by the 58th (London) and 12th (Eastern) Divisions on 28 August 1918. Five British Artillerymen were buried by their unit in the French Military Cemetery, in the middle of the village, in September 1916; and in 1918 the 12th Division buried in the same cemetery 14 men of the 9th Royal Fusiliers and two of the 7th Royal Sussex.

Guillemont Road Cemetery now contains 2,263 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the First World War. 1,523 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to eight casualties known or believed to be buried among them.

The cemetery was designed by Sir Herbert Baker.

Ralph Henry Smith is commemorated on the following Memorials:

Dunchurch Hall window, Warwickshire

Uppingham School

Liverpool’s Hall of Remembrance, Panel 40

St. Peter’s Church, Dunchurch (former pupils of Dunchurch Hall School)

Probate, in the amount of £10, was not granted until 1929, to his father, a retired bank manager.

His mother died in Devon in 1929 aged 67.

His father was for many years the manager of Martins Bank in Liverpool.  He later lived at Corrie Lodge in Lockerbie, Scotland, and died there in 1930, leaving £9,046.  His funeral was held in Devon.

His younger brother, Brian, held a Commission as Lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery, and arrived in France on 13th March 1917.  He suffered gassing, which caused vision problems in later life, causing him to retire in 1957.  He worked as a physiotherapist in London and for many years in Shanghai and the Far East.  He died in 1974 in Kent.

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