Private ARCHIBALD CHARLES SMITH
13, Cheriton Road, Winchester
Service number 203512. 1/4th Battalion, The Hampshire Regiment
Died, Mesopotamia, 13 July 1917
Life Summary
Private Archibald Charles Smith
Archibald Charles Smith was born in New Alresford, near Winchester, on 28 August 1881, the youngest of the five sons of Harry and Amelia Smith. Known to family and friends as Archie, he was married with four young children when he was conscripted into the Army in December 1916 after a series of appeals against military service. He died in Baghdad seven months later.
Family Background
Archie’s father Harry was born in New Alresford in 1855 and went on to work as a carpenter. Harry’s father, Henry (1824-1874), was a blacksmith who had been born in Owslebury, near Winchester. In April 1846 Henry married Julia Holland (1825-1883) in Alresford. Julia had been born in Meonstoke, Hampshire, and she and Henry went on to have six children, including Harry. They lived in New Alresford all their married lives.
Archie’s mother was born Amelia Ivey (some records have Ivery) in Ovington Down, near Alresford, in 1848. She was one of six children. Her father, Moses (1810-1850), had been born in nearby Ropley and worked as an agricultural labourer. Her mother, Ruth (née Gumbleton 1818-1898), was born in Upham, near Bishops Waltham. In 1841 the family were living in New Alresford and in 1871 in Ovington.
Harry and Amelia married in Alresford in April 1872. In January Amelia had given birth to the couple’s first son, William. More sons followed: Alfred (1873-1909), Thomas (1877-1890), Bertram (1878-1961) and Archie himself in 1881. A daughter, Annie, was born in September 1880, but she died when only a few days old. Amelia herself died in Winchester in 1883, aged just 34.
The loss of his wife at such a young age must have been a shattering blow for Harry Smith who, for the next seven years, assumed sole responsibility for the family. In 1890, however, he remarried. His new wife was 30-year-old Ann Brown, the daughter of an agricultural labourer from Crawley, near Winchester. The marriage marked the end of the Smiths’ ties with New Alresford because by 1891 Harry, Ann and the children were living at 27, Western Road, Winchester.
Archie attended St Michael’s Infants School before moving on to St Thomas Senior Church of England Boys’ School in February 1893. School records show the family living at 3, Avenue Terrace (3, Avenue Road today) where they remained until 1900 when Archie’s father died. The following year Archie and his brother Bertram were boarding at 51, Western Road (now 9 Cheriton Road), the home of whitesmith Harry Legg and his family. Archie was working as a tailor and Bertram as a machinist.
In January 1908 Archie married Annie Wiseman in Winchester and the following year moved to 53, Western Road which was renumbered 13, Cheriton Road in 1914. It is the same address today. (Still living at No. 51 – later 9, Cheriton Road - were Archie’s brother Bertram, with his wife Elizabeth and their young daughter.) Annie, the daughter of labourer Francis Wiseman and his wife Ann, had been born in Ringwood in the New Forest in 1879. By 1901 she was working as a domestic housemaid at Sherriff & Ward department store (later absorbed into Debenhams) in Winchester High Street, one of 33 staff recorded as living on the shop premises.
13, Cheriton Road, Winchester – previously 53, Western Road
until the road was renamed and renumbered in 1914. This was Archie
Smith’s home. His brother Bertram lived at No.9 until 1939
Archie and Annie quickly started a family. Frederick (known as Jim) was born in July 1908, Robert Archibald Charles in May 1910, Ann Amelia (known as Mill) in August 1912 and Doris May (known as Jo) in October 1914.
The Sherriff & Ward store in Winchester High Street in the early 1900s. Archie
Smith’s wife Annie worked and lived here before she married. The store was later absorbed into Debenhams
Great War Record
When the Great War broke out in 1914 Archie was working for Messrs F.W. Flight & Sons, a firm of military tailors at 90, High Street, Winchester. With the demand for uniforms soaring, Archie would have been exceptionally busy and was clearly valued by his employer. So much so that the company successfully appealed for him before the local Military Service Tribunal on two or three occasions after Archie had received call-up papers following the introduction of conscription in 1916.
However, the Tribunal eventually ruled that Archie was eligible for military service and in December 1916 he joined the 1/4th Battalion, The Hampshire Regiment. He would almost certainly have undergone some basic military training in England before being sent out to join the 1/4th Hampshires in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq). It is not known when he arrived there because his Medal Index Card does not state the date that he entered a theatre of war, although it is unlikely to have been in time to share in the Hampshires’ triumphant entry into Baghdad on 13 March 1917.
A long spell of uneventful garrison duty in the occupied city then followed for the 1/4th Hampshires. In his book The Royal Hampshire Regiment 1914-1919, C.T. Atkinson paints a less than flattering picture of the city at the time:
… pleasant at a distance, with romantic traditions, it proved smelly and squalid, and its garrison had much unattractive work before they could make the famous city habitable, sanitary and healthy.
Within a short time, however, the Hampshires had licked the garrison into shape which enabled large numbers of troops to be sent on leave to India. Sickness rates were far lower than the previous two summers, but nevertheless it appears that 37-year-old Archie Smith succumbed to disease on 13 July 1917, although no cause of death is given in any of the official records. There is some confusion, too, over the date of his death with some records giving 3 July and 31 July, but the majority – including the Hampshire Regimental Journal - have 13 July. The Regimental Journal of August 1917 states:
Pte. Archibald C. Smith, Hampshire Regiment, whose death on July 13th, while on active service in Mesopotamia, is officially reported, resided at 13, Cheriton Road. Winchester. In civilian life he was an expert hand in the employ of Messrs. F. Flight & Sons, military tailors, of Winchester, who appealed for him before the local Tribunal on two or three occasions. He was 37 years of age and leaves a widow and four children. A pathetic feature is that a letter, couched in cheery, homely terms, has reached the widow from her husband since she received the announcement of his death; he was at that time quite well.
Family after the Great War
Archie’s widow Annie continued to live at 13, Cheriton Road after the war and was still there in 1929. She died in Winchester in 1963, aged 84.
Archie's brother Bertram Smith in Army uniform
It is possible that Archie’s brother Bertram served in the war as a photograph exists of him in Army uniform. However, no record of military service can be found and, unlike Archie, he is not listed in the Winchester War Service Register. Bertram and his wife Elizabeth continued to live at 9, Cheriton Road until 1939 when they moved to No. 33. Elizabeth died in Winchester in April 1949, aged 71, while Bertram passed away in March 1961 at the age of 83.
Archie’s brother Alfred, who had worked as a plumber, died in 1909, aged 36. No trace can be found of the other surviving brother, William.
All four of Archie and Annie’s children married and moved away from Winchester, although Robert did live for a time in Vernham Road while working as a confectioner of cakes. He died in 1994. Frederick passed away in 1952, William in 1961 and Ann Amelia in 2006.
Medals and Memorials for Archibald Charles Smith
Private Archibald Charles Smith was entitled to the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. He is buried in Baghdad (North Gate) War Cemetery, Iraq (GR. XV. E. 11) and is mentioned on the memorials at St Matthew’s and St Paul’s churches, Winchester. His name also appears on the St Thomas Church of England Boys’ School memorial, now held at Kings’ School, Winchester.