Sgt 238084 Arthur Scott Smith

In 1901 the family is living at 59 Greystoke Street, Stockport. His father James E. is a mill mechanic aged 41, mother Hannah E. is aged 39. They have nine children in the household; Nellie 16, Charles 14, Hannah 12, James 10, Ada 8, Arthur S. 6, Louis 4, William 2 and Sam Scott 6 months. All of the family were born in Stockport.

 

1911 finds them at 148 Turncroft Lane, with five sons and one daughter at home. His father is 51, a millwright in a cotton mill, his mother is 49, James is 22, a clerk in an iron and steel works, Ada is 20, a packer in a wholesale chemist’s, Louis, 18, is a clerk in the valuation department of the Inland Revenue, Arthur, 16, is an apprentice printer, and William, 13, and Sam, 10, are at school.

 

His father died in the spring of 1914, aged 54.

 

Arthur enlisted in Stockport joining the Cheshire Regiment as Private 266085.Based on the amount of the War Gratuity, Arthur served for 41 months, enlisting in about October or November 1914. Following a transfer he was serving in the 17^th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Sergeant No 238084 when he was killed in action on the 28^th March, 1918 aged 23 during the German Spring Offensive.

The Battalion diary gives an insight into the events of the day:

28^th March 1918

FOLIES – MEZIERES – ROUVREL

10.00am Enemy attacked our immediate front but was driven off – Half an hour later enemy was seen in large numbers through ROUVROY to WARVILLERS. About 11 am orders were received tha the Battalion would be relieved by 133^rd French Division. The relief was carried out shortly after noon, after a message had been received by telephone that the French were satisfied with the position and that we were to withdraw at once.  

4pm The enemy were then in BEAUFORT. The Battalion assembled at MEZIERES and marched to ROUVREL to billets arriving about 6.30pm.

Arthur's body was not recovered or was subsequently lost as he has no known grave and is commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial in France.

The POZIERES MEMORIAL relates to the period of crisis in March and April 1918 when the Allied Fifth Army was driven back by overwhelming numbers across the former Somme battlefields, and the months that followed before the Advance to Victory, which began on 8 August 1918. The Memorial commemorates over 14,000 casualties of the United Kingdom and 300 of the South African Forces who have no known grave and who died on the Somme from 21 March to 7 August 1918.

The cemetery and memorial were designed by W.H. Cowlishaw, with sculpture by Laurence A. Turner. The memorial was unveiled by Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien on 4 August 1930.

Arthur was reported missing in the Weekly Casualty List on the 28th May 1918:

- King's (Liverpool Regiment) Smith 238084 Sjt. A. S. (Stockport);  

His mother contacted the International Red Cross in hopes of finding information about Arthur.  A notation on his ICRC card dated 25th October 1918 states cryptically, “Asked for names” and another entry in French, “... (?) our enquiry” dated 26th November 1918.  The last entry dated 20th August 1919 reads, “No further communication, prisoners repatriated”.  A note on the bottom of the card says, “see Scott Smith” but no card in that name has been found.

 

His mother received his Army effects and a War Gratuity of £22-10s.  The pension cards (one showing rank L/Cpl and battalion as 5th K.L.R. and the other giving his date of death as 27/3/1928) in the name of his mother, 186 Turncroft Lane, Stockport, shows a pension of 6/- a week was awarded.  She later moved to 57 Grenville Street.  

 

CWGC and the Medal Roll give his rank as Sergeant.

 

Four years after his death, Arthur was remembered in the Alderney & Winslow Advertiser on 31st March 1922:

“In proud and loving memory of Sergeant Arthur Scott Smith, King’s Liverpool Regiment (late 6th Cheshire’s), killed in action about March 28, 1918.  57 Granville Street, Stockport.”

 

His younger brother William enlisted in March 1914, before he was 18 years old, in the Cheshire Regiment. He went to France in November 1914, and returned to the U.K. in January 1915 (perhaps because he was under age) until September 1916.  In November 1918 he was hospitalised with influenza and pneumonia, and discharged in 1919, sick and wounded. 

 

His brother Louis served in France with the 10th K.L.R. and the Machine Gun Corps.

 

His brother James had a son he called Arthur.

 

His mother died 1935 aged 73. 

 

Arthur is commemorated on the following memorials - 

St. Mary’s Church, Stockport

Cheshire Roll of Honour

 

Stockport War Memorial.