Robert SMITH

1872 - 1916  (43 years)

• Name	Robert SMITH
  Birth	4 Oct 1872	Wilmot Township, Waterloo County, Ontario, Canada   [1]
  Christening	15 Dec 1872	St James Anglican Church, Wilmot Township, Waterloo County, Ontario, Canada   [2]
  Gender	Male
  Census	6 Apr 1891	Wilmot Township, Waterloo County, Ontario, Canada   [3]
  Note	15 Sep 1916
  Robert's military service records indicate that he was born Oct 4 1873, but the record of his christening in the SJAC parish register says Oct 4 1872. He was 40 years old when he enlisted. He was a surveyor with the B.C.L.S. which is assumed to mean British Columbia Land Survey, because he enlisted in Kamloops on Sept 29, 1915. He was sent to Vancouver for medical assessment and in April of 1916 was in hospital there because of accute tonsilitis. His next of kin is Miss Jane W Smith of 24 St Clair Ave East in Toronto. She received all of his personal property when he died. He was 5 ft 9 1/2 inches tall, dark complexion, brown hair and brown eyes. His chest measured 41 inches when fully expanded. He shipped out to Britain April 22 1916, was sent to France Aug 11, 1916, and was killed in action at Kemmel, Belgium, September 15, 1916. He was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. He is buried in row 10, grave 28 of the Kemmel Chateau military cemetary in Belgium. According to an article about the first world war, the British did not institute the dual tag system for their troops until the fall of 1916. The practice prior to that time was to take the tag from the body and then bury the body on the spot (soon after a battle), so they knew who had died, where (roughly) and when, but when it came time to rebury the dead in orderly rows in cemeteries, often they could not identify the bodies they found. Two million soldiers of the total of six million who died (on both sides) during the war could not be identified; 220,000 of this number were commonwealth troops. The unidentified lie in graves under markers with no names, and bearing the inscription "Known unto God", which was coined by Rudyard Kipling, one of the original members of the War Graves Commission, whose son John lay in an "unknown" grave at the time (he has since been found). The names of those who could not be identified are inscribed on large monuments in the cemetery.
  SW Group	1
  UKC 1881	N
  Death	15 Sep 1916	Kemmel, Belgium
  	Killed in action in Europe in WW1.
  Person ID	I211	Southwest
  Last Modified	21 Aug 2012

  
  

  Father	Thomas Robert SMITH,   b. 17 Feb 1829, Sedgefield, Durham, England d. 6 Sep 1903, Wilmot Township, Waterloo County, Ontario, Canada (Age 74 years)
  Mother	Elizabeth Henrietta MALLETT,   b. Jan 1837, Wilmot Township, Waterloo County, Ontario, Canada d. 18 Apr 1925, Wilmot Township, Waterloo County, Ontario, Canada (Age ~ 88 years)
  Family ID	F24	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

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  Birth - 4 Oct 1872 - Wilmot Township, Waterloo County, Ontario, Canada Christening - 15 Dec 1872 - St James Anglican Church, Wilmot Township, Waterloo County, Ontario, Canada Census - 6 Apr 1891 - Wilmot Township, Waterloo County, Ontario, Canada Death - 15 Sep 1916 - Kemmel, Belgium  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Sources

  [S39] Birth, unknown cd, in Parish Register, St. James Anglican Church, Wilmot, Baptisms 1856 - 1916, Wilmot Township, Ontario, two volumes, original, unpaginated, arranged by date, Robert Mallett, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Hereinafter cited as Baptisms, Parish Register, St. James, Wilmot., Robert Smith, M10C951S450. [S38] unknown name of person, Parish Register two volumes, original, unpaginated, arranged by date, Archives, Anglican Diocese of Huron, Diocesan Archives, Huron College, 1349 Western Road, London, Ontario, Canada, N6G 1H3, (519) 645 7956., Robert Smith. [S33] Thomas R Smith household, 1891 Census, Ontario, Canada: Waterloo (123), Wilmot Township (h-), p. , line, Library and Archives Canada, RG31, Microfilm Reel T-6375.