William Gayner Smith

Memorial: Thornbury - Castle School

Regiment: South African Infantry

Medals: British War Medal, Next of Kin Memorial Plaque 1914 - 1921, Victory Medal

Rank and number: Lance Corporal 1007

Parents: Thomas Cox and Eliza Smith

Marital status: Married

Home address: Porch House, Castle Street, Thornbury, Bristol

Pre-war occupation: South African Constabulary

Date of birth: 1883

Place of birth: Thornbury, Bristol

Date of death: 15/10/1917

Buried/Commemorated at: Buffs Road Cemetery (Ref. F. 1.), Ypres and Thornbury United Reformed Church Memorial Tablet

Age: 34

Further information:

Wooden Memorial Board

William Gayner Smith, known as Willie, was born in Thornbury in 1883, the son of tailor Thomas Cox Smith and his wife Eliza. Willie had three brothers and a sister. He seems to have moved to South Africa by 1904. He served in the South African Constabulary before the war

In 1915 Willie joined the newly formed South African Infantry Brigade. He was in the 2nd Regiment, whose men were mostly drawn from Natal and the Orange Free State. From April 1916 the Brigade was in France

On 14th July, during the Somme Offensive, the South Africans entered Delville Wood and were ordered to hold it ‘at all costs’. Nearly surrounded and under constant fire, they fought without relief for five days. Despite losing 80% of their men killed, wounded or missing, they continued to fight, resorting to hand to hand combat to hold their position. In July 1916 Thornbury’s newspaper reported, ‘Willie Smith received a bullet wound and some bayonet wounds.’ He was lucky to be alive. Willie probably convalesced in Thornbury. On 24th October he married his cousin. The Bristol Mercury reported, ‘A large congregation assembled at the Parish Church of St Mary ... while the wedding took place of Miss Marjorie Annie Gayner daughter of Mr and Mrs F. Gayner of City House, with Mr William Gayner Smith (Durban Light Infantry, South Africa) son of Mr and Mrs T. C. Smith of Porch House. Owing to the bridegroom having only recently recovered from wounds received in action in July last in France the wedding was of a quiet nature'

In the extremely wet summer of 1917, the South Africans were in Flanders at the Third Battle of Ypres, also known as Passchendaele. On 20th September they saw action at the Battle of the Menin Road. In a successful advance at Bremen Redoubt, near Zonnebeke, Lance Corporal William Hewitt, 2nd Regiment, won the Victoria Cross. He had also served in the South African
Constabulary. The birth of Willie’s daughter, Vivienne, was registered in the September quarter, 1917

In early October the South Africans were near Langemark-Poelkapelle and moved up to the front line. Historian John Buchan wrote, ‘The relief was very difficult, for the whole country had become an irreclaimable bog, and the mud was beyond all human description. There was intermittent shelling... and much bombing from enemy planes.’ According to Commonwealth War Graves Commission records Willie Smith was Killed in Action on the 15th October 1917

After the war, Marjorie Smith chose the words ‘A SOLDIER AND A MAN’ for his headstone in Buffs Road Cemetery. Willie is also remembered on the family grave in Thornbury Cemetery, where his death was recorded as 18th October, – 'THEY SHALL NOT GROW OLD, AS WE THAT ARE LEFT GROW OLD. AGE SHALL NOT WEARY THEM, NOR DO THE YEARS CONDEMN. AT THE GOING DOWN OF THE SUN AND IN THE MORNING WE WILL REMEMBER THEM’

Willie’s brother, Frederick Charles Smith, is also remembered on the Thornbury Memorial

By kind permission, this information is based on the following source(s):

Thornbury Roots Website, Thornbury and District Museum Research Group, Forces War Records and CWGC