FREDERICK SMITH
Frederick is not remembered on the war memorial at Christchurch Park.
Born: 10th May 1885, Ipswich.
Died: 29th June 1915; age: 30; Died from Accidental Concussion at the Egyptian Army Hospital, Cairo.
Residence: Wairoa, Hawke’s Bay, North Island, New Zealand.
Occupation: Station Hand Engineer – Mr. H. Martin Esq.
Frederick was a member of the Legion of Frontiersmen.
Enlistment Location: Trentham, Upper Hutt, Wellington; Date: 12th December 1914; Age: 28; Religion: CofE. Frederick signed up until the end of the war. Next of Kin: brother – Mr. Percy Smith, of 12, Patterdale Terrace, Gateshead, Durham. Height: 5ft 9 1/2, fair complexion, blue eyes & light brown hair.
Service:
Home: 12th December 1914 – 16th April 1915.
New Zealand Expeditionary Force: 17th April 1915.
Rank: Trooper; Service Number: 11/922.
Regiment: New Zealand Mounted Rifles, Wellington Mounted Rifles, Fourth Reinforcements.
Formerly of the 1st Volunteer Battalion, Suffolk Regiment – 4 years.
Medals Awarded: Victory, British War & 1915 Star.
Grave Reference:
B.311.
Egypt.
Relatives Notified & Address: Son of Alfred Smith, of 206, Felixstowe Road, Ipswich; brother of Percy Smith, of 12, Patterdale Terrace, Gateshead, Durham.
CENSUS
1891 25, Tower Street, Ipswich.
Frederick was 5 years old and living with his parents, brothers & spinster, maternal aunt.
Alfred Smith, 46, an Iron Foundry’s Clerk, born Stamford, Lincolnshire.
Elizabeth Smith (nee Worn), born Orford, Suffolk.
Henry Charles Smith, 16, born Ipswich.
Sydney Smith, 12, born Ipswich.
George Alfred Smith, 10, born Ipswich.
Mary Jane Worn, 44, a Mother’s Help – Domestic Servant, born Orford.
1901 13, Bolton Lane, Ipswich.
Frederick was 15 years old and living with his parents, brothers & maternal aunt.
Alfred, 56, an Iron Foundry’s Clerk.
Elizabeth, 53.
George, 20, a Builder’s Apprentice.
Mary Worn, 54.
Frederick’s next of kin was his brother, Percy Smith, a Wholesale Grocer’s Assistant, born 1871, Ipswich – he was the eldest child of Alfred & Elizabeth Smith. In 1902, Percy married Ethel Emily Ashdown, they made their family home at Gateshead, Durham.
Percy received his late brother’s medals at his home – 1, Market Street, Newcastle-on-Tyne – 3rd September 1919, and then at 5, Stavordale Terrace, Low Fell, Gateshead, Tyne And Wear. The Memorial Scroll was dispatched on the 4th February 1922, and sent to Percy, at Stavordale Terrace.
1915
For the first four months of 1915, the Wellington Mounted Rifles Regiment (WMR) continues training in Egypt. Hopes of action in defence of the Suez Canal and then in the invasion of the Dardanelles are dashed. In May, however, the WMR and the rest of the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade (NZMR) are thrown – as infantry – into the desperate struggle to seize the commanding heights of the Gallipoli Peninsula. In the next four months the regiment suffers more than half of all its casualties in the war.
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