Stephen Smith

Private Stephen Smith 15058, The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment)

Stephen Smith was born on 11 November 1897 in Crowborough, Sussex. According to family records, he enlisted in The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment) in January 1916, joining the thousands of young men called into British military service during the First World War. The regiment’s historically appropriate title was The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment).

Smith subsequently served on the Western Front. According to an inscription that he later wrote on the reverse of a portrait, he was wounded on 6 June 1917 during operations around Messines Ridge. This was during the preliminary bombardment immediately before the Battle of Messines, which officially began on 7 June. Family history records that he was struck in the face by a shrapnel ball and was evacuated to Britain to recover. A portrait taken in Brighton shortly afterwards reportedly still shows swelling on his face, and on its reverse he wrote:

“Taken in July 1917, aged 19, after I was wounded on June 6th 1917 at the Battle of Messines Ridge.”

Family members recalled that the shrapnel ball remained lodged inside him for the rest of his life.

After recovering, Smith returned to military service on the Western Front. Family accounts state that he was wounded a second time and that he rarely spoke about what he had experienced. He reportedly told relatives that he had been buried alive three times and dug out twice by his comrades. He also remembered trench walkways improvised from empty bully beef tins because of the depth of the mud and the soldiers’ weariness with the same repetitive rations.

According to the surviving family account, Smith was still serving overseas when the Armistice came into effect on 11 November 1918, his twenty-first birthday. He later served with the British Army of Occupation in Cologne, Germany, before transferring to the Army Reserve in October 1919. These details should remain attributed to family records unless his surviving service or pension file is obtained.

His family-preserved medal entitlement records the British War Medal and Victory Medal for his First World War service. The definitive archival confirmation would be his medal index card in WO 372 and the corresponding campaign-medal roll in WO 329, which record individual First World War medal entitlement.

During the Second World War, Smith again undertook military service as a member of the Home Guard at Crowborough. His family medal group includes the Defence Medal, consistent with qualifying Home Guard service. Full documentary verification requires evidence that he completed the required 1,080 days of Home Guard service between 14 May 1940 and 31 December 1944.

Family records state that Smith died peacefully at home in 1984 at the age of 87, shortly before a Meals on Wheels volunteer arrived with his evening meal. In a final personal tribute, he was reportedly buried wearing his regimental blazer, with the shrapnel ball that had remained with him since the First World War placed in its pocket.

His medals, portrait and the memories preserved by his family provide a lasting record of a British soldier who endured extraordinary hardship during the First World War and later served his community’s defence during the Second. Like many veterans of his generation, much of his story survives not in public honours citations, but through personal artefacts and the recollections passed down by those who knew him.