Alfred Robert Smith was born 4 February 1895 in Bakewell, Derbyshire, the eldest son of 10 children (one pair of twins) of father Alfred, a journeyman tailor, and mother Mary Hannah Smith. In 1901 they were living at 10 Gatacre Place, Oswestry, later moving to 1 Swan Crescent. Alfred worked as an apprentice coach painter with Cambrian Railways. In 1915 Alfred married Annie (Davies) in Ludlow: they lived at 31 Lloyd Street, Oswestry. In the same year his father, Alfred, died and was buried in Oswestry Cemetery.

Alfred enlisted on 4 September 1914 as one of the Oswestry Pals, joining 6 Bn King’s Shropshire Light Infantry. He went over to France with the battalion in July 1915. Alfred was reported wounded and missing and later presumed dead on March 23, 1918. The battalion were in action during Operation Michael, Kaiser Offensive. The battalion suffered badly with many men killed or taken prisoner in a fighting retreat from Happencourt and over the River Somme at Ham and eventually back to Le Quesnel. In a letter to his wife, Annie, one of Alfred’s ‘Pals’, wrote “Bert (his middle name was ‘Robert’) stopped to dress a wounded man and Fritz was nearly on them but Bert would not come until he had dressed the man and then he did make an attempt and was wounded in the chest and failed to get away otherwise we would’ve heard. It was really a great sacrifice stopping to help a comrade and I hope that will be a consolation.”

Alfred was buried at Ham British Cemetery, Muille Villette. His headstone reads ‘Greater love has no man than this’. He is also commemorated on the war memorials for the Cambrian Railway and at St. Oswald’s Church, Oswestry.
Alfred’s brother Frederick was killed in action 21 November 1917.

Acknowledgements.  

References and Sources

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