Private EDWIN ALFRED SMITH
11, Fairfield Road, Winchester
Service numbers 4/2844 and 200771. 1/4th Battalion, The Hampshire Regiment
Killed in action, Mesopotamia, 23-24 February 1917
Family Background
Edwin Alfred Smith was born in Winchester in late 1887, the eldest child of Edwin Herbert and Charlotte Smith. The Smiths were a long-established Winchester family whose men traditionally worked in skilled professions, particularly carpentry. Teddy, as Edwin was known to family and friends, went on to earn his living as a wood carver. He was also an accomplished sportsman.
Teddy’s father worked as a carpenter and joiner. He was born in Winchester in 1865, the son of Walter Smith (1825-1871), a Winchester-born carpenter, and his wife Emily (née Foyle), who had been born in Wilton, Wiltshire, around 1836. Emily’s father, Henry, also worked as a carpenter. Interestingly, Edwin Snr’s brother, Walter (Teddy’s uncle), served in the Militia and in the 1881 Census was recorded as living at the Army Barracks in Winchester.
In 1871 Walter and Emily Smith were living at 6, Cheesehill Street, Winchester, with Emily working as a laundress. Ten years later, 16-year-old Edwin Snr was living with his mother and four brothers at the other end of the city at 5, Tower Street. Emily Smith died in Winchester in 1884, aged 48.
Teddy’s mother was born Charlotte Whitear in Winchester in 1865. Her father, Jacob, born around 1839, was also a Wintonian and worked as a painter/decorator. Charlotte’s mother was born Emma Abbott in Wimborne, Dorset, in around 1841. In 1871 the Whitears were living in Middle Brook Street, Winchester. Ten years later they had moved to 2, Colebrook Place, with Charlotte working as a dressmaker, a skill she would have learned from her seamstress mother. By 1901, Charlotte’s parents had moved to Basingstoke. Emma Whitear died in Winchester in 1905, aged 64, and Jacob in Fareham the following year, aged 67.
Edwin Smith Snr and Charlotte Whitear married in Winchester in late 1887, around the time of Teddy’s birth. Four years later the couple were living at 68, Sussex Street with Teddy and a second son, Walter, who had been born in 1889.
11, Fairfield Road, Winchester – Teddy Smith’s home.
His family lived here for more than 40 years
By 1901 the Smiths had moved to 11, Fairfield Road, Winchester (the house has the same address today). This was presumably a larger property given that the family had grown with the births of Winifred in 1892, Dorothy in 1894 and Clement in 1899. Two more daughters, Gladys and Nellie, were born in 1902 and 1904 respectively. The Smiths also took in a lodger whose rent would have supplemented the family income. The house at 11, Fairfield Road remained the Smith family home until at least 1939.
No record can be found of Teddy’s education. On leaving school he served an apprenticeship with Messrs Thomas & Co., cabinet makers and upholsterers in Highcliffe, Winchester. The 1911 Census records his occupation as wood carver. Teddy also excelled at sport. He was a keen athlete and played for Winchester Football Club, winning several medals. Winchester FC’s ground at the time was on land off the Stockbridge Road, opposite The Roebuck pub.
Great War Record
Teddy enlisted with the 4th Battalion, The Hampshire Regiment in September 1914, a month after war broke out. His original service number was 4/2844. Assigned to the 1/4th Battalion, he sailed to India in October and spent the next four months training and preparing for war. In March 1915 Teddy sailed with the 1/4th Hampshires for Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), arriving at Basra on the 18th.
British troops in trenches in Mesopotamia. Teddy Smith served in the region for
nearly two years before he was killed in February 1917 during the attempt to recapture Kut-al-Amara from the Turks
Map showing the 4th Hampshires’ role at the Battle of Shumran Bend
in which Teddy Smith was killed on 24 February 1917
Teddy served in one of the most inhospitable theatres of war for nearly two years during which time his physical fitness would have stood him in good stead. (For details of the 1/4th Hampshires’ campaigns in Mesopotamia in 1915 and 1916 see Mission Creep).
Teddy Smith was killed during operations to recapture the garrison town of Kut-al-Amara, which had fallen to the Turks after a five-month siege in April 1916. On 23-24 February 1917, the 1/4th Hampshires formed part of a British-Indian force which attacked across the River Tigris at Shumran Bend. Early on 23 February, more than 200 Hampshire soldiers joined hundreds of other troops in rowing pontoons full of men across the Tigris to attack Turkish positions. The operation was successful, but only after many of the pontoons had been hit by enemy fire which killed and wounded at least 100 Hampshires.
The battalion was in action again the following day, attacking Turkish positions on a ridge which ran across Shumran Bend. Of 450 men who went into battle 180 were killed or wounded, mainly by enemy machine-gun fire. It is unclear whether Teddy Smith was killed while rowing a pontoon across the Tigris on 23 February or in the attack the following day. Most of the official records give his date of death as 24 February, although the Regimental Journal gives the 23rd. He was 29 years old and his body was never found.
The Hampshire Regimental Journal of March 1917 stated:
SMITH - Killed in action, in Mesopotamia, on February 23rd-24th, 2844 Edwin Alfred (Teddy), eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, 11, Fairfield Road, Winchester. Pte. Edwin Alfred (Teddy) Smith, Hampshire Regiment, who was killed in action on February 23rd, was the eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. E. H. Smith, of 11, Fairfield Road, Winchester. As a lad he served his apprenticeship with Messrs Thomas and Co, Highcliffe, but latterly took to carpentry. He was a keen athlete, and played for the Winchester Football Club, being the holder of several medals.
On 17 March 1917, the Hampshire Observer newspaper reported:
The Winchester Football Club has lost another of its players in the person of ‘Teddy’ Smith of Fairfield Road, who has … been killed in action in Mesopotamia.
Family after the Great War
Teddy’s youngest brother Clement also served in the Great War. He is believed to have been conscripted into the Training Reserve Regiment in February 1917, before transferring to the Royal Warwickshire Regiment as a private (service number 34905) and then the Manchester Regiment (service number 71097). He survived the war, receiving the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. No trace of Clement can be found in the records after 1920.
Teddy’s other brother, Walter, served with the Hampshire Regiment in Egypt and Palestine. He was wounded in December 1917 but survived the war and went on to become a well-known grocer in Winchester. He died in 1955, aged 65. All three Smith brothers are listed in the Winchester War Service Register.
Teddy’s parents both died in Winchester, his mother in 1924 and his father in 1936. His sister Winifred died in 1919, aged just 28, possibly from Spanish flu. Dorothy and Gladys Smith are both believed to have married and lived locally. The youngest sibling, Nellie, remained single and was still living at 11, Fairfield Road in 1939. She died in Southampton in 1990 at the age of 86.
Medals and Memorials for Edwin Alfred Smith
Private Edwin Alfred Smith entitled to the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. He is commemorated on the Basra Memorial, Iraq, (Panel 21 and 63) and on the memorials at St Paul’s and St Matthew’s churches, Winchester, although on the latter his name is given as B.A. Smith.