LIEUTENANT GODFREY MICHAEL (MICKY) SMITH, 256th BRIGADE ROYAL FIELD ARTILLERY. DIED OF WOUNDS, 28TH OCTOBER 1918, AGED 22.


LIEUTENANT GODFREY MICHAEL (MICKY) SMITH, 256th BRIGADE ROYAL FIELD ARTILLERY. DIED OF WOUNDS, 28TH OCTOBER 1918, AGED 22.


At the beginning of the war Micky Smith had been a member of the 11th (Wharfedale) Battery, of the 4th West Riding Howitzer Brigade, a Territorial Army unit attached to the 49th West Riding Division. Based at the Drill Hall on Leeds Road it was made up of part-time soldiers who lived in Ilkley and Burley in Wharfedale who trained on a Saturday evening and went to occasional camps. Indeed in August 1914 immediately after its summer camp the Wharfedale battery mobilised for war.


Micky accompanied the battery when it landed in France on 15th April 1915 to fight on the Western Front. He remained with battery until 1917 when he was recommended for officer training and returned to Britain. In the spring of 1918 now gazetted as a 2nd Lieutenant he returned to France and was posted to the 256th Brigade of the Royal Field artillery, part of the 51st (Highland) Division.

On the 13th of October the brigade was in the front lines near to the Noyelles east of Lens supporting an attack by several Highland regiments when it came under persistent German counter battery fire. As the battery’s guns were put out of action and casualties began to mount, without a care for his own safety Micky returned to a damaged gun replaced the breech and began to return fire on the enemy. As the fighting began to subside he began to lead the gun teams away from danger but as a he did so a shell landed nearby wounding him. For his astonishing act of bravery he was awarded the Military Cross.

Evacuated back to Britain he was sent to the 3rd London General Hospital in Wandsworth, London where, sadly, he succumbed to his wounds on the 28th of October.

Micky Smith was born in Ilkley on 15th September 1896, one of 8 children of George and Barbara Smith who lived at Hawthorne Cottage on Lister Street. He attended Ilkley Grammar School from 1905 to 1912 and then may have worked for his father. In his spare time apart from his membership of the Territorial Army, he played for Ilkley Rugby Club.

After his death, his commanding officer Major Salt wrote to his grieving parents. “He will be a great loss to the battery as he was a most excellent officer. Another soldier who had served under Micky wrote to his parents “He was one of the bravest and coolest men I have ever seen. His wonderful cheerfulness under shell-fire made everyone ashamed of showing any fear.”

After his death the army returned the body of Micky Smith to his parents and today he lies in Ilkley Cemetery and is remembered with pride at St Margaret’s Church and on the war memorial on The Grove.





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