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OUR WAR
MEMORIAL
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This article was first published by the Pirton Magazine in September 2004, and is provided courtesy of the magazine, the editor Derek Jarrett. Further acknowledgments appear at the end of the article.
HARRY SMITH
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One
of the awful aspects of writing about Pirton men who appear on our War Memorial
is that their deaths had almost an anonymous setting; they were but a small
fraction of the horrendous losses of the First World War. Apart from their
families and friends back in our village they were but casualty statistics. We
must try to record these men in a way that they become something more than mere
names carved in the stone. Sometimes our initial research reveals little; thus
any information about them is invaluable.
The Smith family was well established in Pirton when on 25th September 1869, James Smith a 20-year old labourer married Lydia Pearce, aged 25. Looking at their wedding certificate we see that James was, like a large share of Pirton people at that time, illiterate and he signed with the oft-used “X” mark, They were married at St, Mary's by Rev Loughborough. Five weeks later, Lydia was a witness at her brother's wedding and mistakenly signed with her maiden name, crossed it out and signed again, this time with her recently acquired married name! She could write, at least her name.
Whilst
this generation of Pirton villagers were commonly poor and illiterate, the
coming of a national education scheme made a huge difference. In 1877 our
village school opened and when, in 1891, Emma a daughter of James and Lydia,
married a London policeman she signed her wedding certificate in a lovely
copperplate hand.
Emma was the eldest of several Smith children; it is to a much younger sibling, that we turn our attention. Harry, the youngest of at least five children was born in the hot summer of 1889 and christened at St. Mary's, again by Rev Loughborough, on 21st October. Harry started at Pirton School and on the 1901 census is shown as an 11 year old schoolboy. At the time of the census his father, James, was away but living at home along with his 57 year old mother Lydia, were Harry's siblings: Ruth, 22, John 19 and Frank aged 16, Living at their home, part of 41 High Street and now part of the home of Rita Chambers, was Ruth's daughter, Lizzie Priscilla. 57-year old Lydia. Harry's mother, supplemented the poor family budget by straw-plaiting.
Even before Harry and Frank went to war as young men, the family had already suffered a tragedy when one of their brothers, 29 year old John, died in 1911.
By the time the War started, Harry was working on the parish farmland for Mr Franklin of Walnut Tree Farm. Twenty-five when the war that was 'going to be over by Christmas started, it was probably not long before he enlisted in Pirton and joined the 1st Battalion of the Hertfordshire Regiment, no. 265408, probably in the Territorials. These were the times when many friends would enlist and join the same regiment so 'mates' stayed together. There is no evidence that Harry had married, so the worry of him going to war was borne by his parents and sisters.
We know relatively little about Harry's war other than through two letters sent back to Pirton, Writing to his former employer, Mr Franklin, in January 1917 he says he and his mates were all safe & sound. He describes the muddy condition of the trenches in which they had to stand for twelve hours, but made light of the experience, as they had good fires to go to afterwards, at which they dried their clothing. "When we were in the trenches", he adds, "we started singing and the two letters from the Front are our only present source of information about Harry Smith in the war years, Germans heard us. They had the cheek to get on top of their trenches and waved their hats to us, but we soon made them get lower by putting a few bullets into them. They were only two hundred yards from us. We are expecting to go in the trenches very soon, but in a different place. We enjoyed ourselves on Christmas Day as well as we could expect, but live in hopes of having a better one next time. The Herts (regiment) have been lucky up to the present, and hope to remain lucky enough to get home safe, we are still merry and keep in good heart".
A few weeks later he wrote to someone in our village asking to be remembered to friends, as he could not write to them all. Alluding to a friend at the Front, also from the village, he says his friend is anxious that his sweetheart "should keep the rice handy for the wedding, as we shall soon be home to get married, when we will have a jolly good time - so cheer up, for we are not dead yet".
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Around
this time Harry was promoted to Corporal H Smith, but on Tuesday 31st July, 1917
he was killed in action. Like millions of others, the circumstances of his death
remain unknown, seemingly a victim of the horror called Passcendale, He was
buried in the largest of all war cemeteries, Tyne Cot, Zonnebeke, at West-Vlaanderen
in Belgium, Ref, 10. D. 5, He is one of some 15,000 laid to rest there a man of
27. He had been born, grown up, went to school and worked in the quietness, if
relative poverty, of this part of North Hertfordshire; to die in the awfulness
of countryside churned up by shellfire which turned to mud so deep that men sank
up to their waists, guns and even tanks disappeared in this ocean of slime.
He died in a period of family tragedy, for his was the third death in the family in only eight months. His older brother James had died in 1911. Whilst in the trenches, Harry learnt of the death of his father, James, in December 1916. Less than four months later, his mother Lydia died in April 1917, pre-deceasing her youngest son, Harry, by less than four months. The Pirton man who had written in January 1917, 'but live in hopes of having a better Christmas next time' was never to know.
-(2004).JPG)
Our
War Memorial shows Cpl Harry Smith, Herts Regiment, as one of 30 First World War
Pirton victims. Walk across the graveyard towards St. Mary's and you can see
another monument (plot 1133) - to four of the family. The memorial records
the deaths of James and Lydia Smith and of John (Harry's brother) in 1911.
Though difficult to read in the picture, but clear on the gravestone itself, it
has at its foot the wording: 'Also of Harry Smith, killed in action July 31St
1917'.
**ln our modest research of Harry Smith, we stumbled across a link with present day Pirton. Harry's sister, Ruth, married Harry Albert Cooper on 4th April 1904. Ruth and Harry Cooper were the parents of Alice Lake, mother of Pete Lake who lives in Walnut Tree Road. Thus Harry Smith, one of Pirton's war heroes, was the great uncle of Pete. It's wonderful to have such a village link still.
*** For help with this article we thank: Clare Baines, Michael Newbery, Pete Lake, Lynda Smith www.roll-of-honour.com and that local history gem 'A Foot on Three Daisies'.
Points of contact are:
Pirton Website Jonty Wild via jontywild@pirton.org.uk
We would like to ask for your help, if you have any information, photographs or artefacts:
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For the remaining men yet to be included in a magazine article. |
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For any new information on those already published or following publication. |
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For men who survived the war. |
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If you have any photographs of soldiers from that war who you believe may be related to Pirton, but don't know who they are |
Please get in touch jontywild@pirton.org.uk
Also if anyone would like copy of any Pirton WW1 war grave or memorial please contact Jonty Wild, digital copies for personal use will be provided free of charge to relatives, photographs can be provided for a small charge.
