LIEUTENANT WILLIAM SUTTON SMEETH, ROYAL FLYING CORPS.


LIEUTENANT WILLIAM SUTTON SMEETH, ROYAL FLYING CORPS. KILLED IN A FLYING ACCIDENT 17th JULY 1917 AGED 22.


William Smeeth was born on 16th April 1895 in Morley, Leeds the second son of a wealthy iron merchant, Thomas Smeeth and his wife Mary. Within a couple of years the family moved to Ben Rhydding where they lived in a large house called 'The Sycamores' which once stood at the junction of Ben Rhydding Road and Constable Road.


To begin with William was educated at local schools including Ilkley Grammar where he was a pupil until 1909 when he was then sent to the Loretto School in Edinburgh to complete his education. A talented sportsman he was good enough to play in the Ilkley Grammar 1st XI when he was only 14 years old as well as representing the school at rugby. In the years before the war he played cricket for Bradford CC and rugby for the prestigious Headingley Club. His talents as a left arm bowler were soon recognised by the Yorkshire Cricket Club and he played for both the Colts team and the county's 2nd XI.

                       Ilkley Grammar School Cricket 1st XI 1909, William seated on the ground

At the outbreak of war William was amongst the first to enlist in the 16th Battalion The Middlesex Regiment. This was a Public Schools battalion which only recruited men from well known private schools. Like many men who had been educated at public school he was soon selected for officer training and was gazetted as 2nd Lieutenant in the 9th Royal Irish Rifles. This was a Kitchener battalion raised entirely from amongst Protestants who lived in West Belfast. William was able to join his new battalion in the Spring of 1916 as it prepared for the Somme Offensive. On 1st July 1916 the battalion, part of the Ulster Division, attacked the German trenches near to Thiepval. During the afternoon of that fateful day William was leading a party of bombers across No-Man’s Land towards the enemy positions when he was wounded by a German grenade. Badly wounded he was dragged him back to safety and from there was returned to Britain.

It was probably during his long recuperation that William decided to transfer from the infantry and into the Royal Flying Corps. In the Spring of 1917 he was posted to the 53rd Training Squadron RFC at Narborough in Norfolk where he graduated as a Flying Officer on 3rd July 1917. In the days that followed he obviously strove to hone his flying skills and was able to amass an impressive 40 hours of solo flying time. On the afternoon of the 17th July he was flying solo in an Avro 504J machine which he landed at the Narborough Airfield. As he was taxiing the plane another machine attempting to take off collided with William's plane and killed him.

The body of Lieutenant William Sutton Smeeth was returned to his family and a few days after his death he was buried with full military honours in the grounds of Bolton Abbey. In 1920 his family unveiled a plaque in the church of St John in Ben Rhydding and he is also remembered on our war memorial in Ilkley.

Grave at Bolton Abbey










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