Smyly, GE
(1893 - 1917)
Key Facts
DATE OF BIRTH:
11th July 1893
YEARS ATTENDED THE COLLEGE:
1907 - 1909
HOME ADDRESS WHEN AT THE COLLEGE:
The Vicarage, Penge
REGIMENT
Honourable Artillery Company (Infantry)
FINAL RANK:
Lance Corporal
DATE OF DEATH:
28th April 1917
AGE AT DEATH:
23
WHERE HE DIED (or was wounded)
Oppy, near Arras
LOCATION OF GRAVE OR MEMORIAL:
Arras Memorial Bay 1
Lance Corporal George Elrington Smyly
Born on July 11th 1893, George was the youngest of five children of the Reverend William Smyly, at that point vicar of St. John the Evangelist’s, Penge, and his wife, Evelyn. He started at the College at the beginning of 1907 and was a pupil at the College for the next three years, leaving at the end of 1909 whilst a member of the Modern Lower Fourth.
In May 1915 George enlisted as a member of the Honourable Artillery Company, although he was to spend over a year still stationed in England, only proceeding to the front in July 1916. That November he was wounded; it was not a serious enough wound to require being invalided back to England, however, and he was back in the trenches a few weeks later. On April 28th 1917 he was serving at Oppy, near Arras, when he was struck and killed by a sniper’s bullet, aged 23. He is commemorated on the Arras Memorial.
