PRIVATE 2782 RALPH SMITH 1/8TH BATTALION WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION 27TH SEPTEMBER 1916.


PRIVATE 2782 RALPH SMITH 1/8TH BATTALION (LEEDS RIFLES) WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION 27TH SEPTEMBER 1916.


Ralph Smith was born in Addingham in in 1882, the son of James and Priscilla Smith. By 1901 the family had moved to 3 Little Lane, Ilkley and Ralph became an apprentice house painter with G W Hampshire who had premises on Brook Street. In 1908 Ralph married Annie Stradling from Burley-in-Wharfedale and together they moved to Leeds where he was employed in a shop. By 1914, Annie and Ralph had three children and lived in a small terraced house in Durno Street in Kirkstall.


In October 1914 Ralph and a group of friends enlisted in the 1/8th Battalion (2nd Leeds Rifles) of the West Yorkshire Regiment. Ralph and the battalion were posted to The Western Front in April 1915 and over the next 18 months would see a considerable amount of action.

Transferred to the Somme battlefield in June 1916, the 8th west Yorks were not heavily involved in the fighting of July and August, however, constant tours in the front line trenches saw mounting casualties. 

On 27th September Ralph was killed whilst the battalion was manning the trenches. Whether he was killed by a sniper or a shell is not known, there was certainly no attack that day. He was just another casualty of the attritional warfare that typified daily life on the Western Front.

Whatever grave Private Ralph Smith had, it has now been lost and he is remembered, along with over 72.000 other men, on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing. He is also remembered on Ilkley War Memorial





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