GUNNER 158797 WILLIAM SMITH 157 BRIGADE ROYAL FIELD ARTILLERY.


GUNNER 158797 WILLIAM SMITH 157 BRIGADE ROYAL FIELD ARTILLERY. DIED OF WOUNDS 2nd NOVEMBER 1917 AGED 21


Born on the 8th August 1896 in the Scholemoor area of Bradford, William Smith was the son of Edwin Smith a plumber and his wife Anne. In the early part of the century, Edwin Smith took the tenancy of the Wheatley Hotel in Ben Rhydding. Educated locally Willie Smith was also a playing member of the Ilkley Rugby Club.


Just before the war the Smith family seems to have moved back to Bradford where Willie became an apprentice auctioneer and married Edith and together set up home on Ireson Street in the Princeville are of the city.

Willie enlisted into the Royal Field Artillery in December 1914 and was posted to 157 Brigade which was a unit largely recruited from Aberdeen. In the late summer of 1917 the Brigade was in the Ypres area and involved in the attacks against the German position that overlooked the city. In the latter part of October the 157th Brigade were positioned at Lapin Farm to the west of Langemark when it was subject to a heavy German barrage. Willie was badly wounded and removed to the Casualty Clearing Station at Dozingham where, sadly, on the 2nd November he succumbed to his wounds.

Today Gunner William Smith lies in the British Military Cemetery at Dozingham and is remembered with pride on our war memorial in Ilkley
Photo courtesy James Cooper



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