Smith, HC

Private Henry Crozier Smith

Born on January 18th 1871 in Kirknewton, Scotland, Henry was the son of Major-General William Smith and his wife, Emma. He spent two years at Dulwich, joining at the start of 1887, and leaving at the end of 1888 whilst a member of the Modern Fifth. After leaving Dulwich he went out to India, at first working in a trading firm, but when this became insolvent as a volunteer member of the Calcutta Light Horse. In 1903 he took a ship over to Canada to start a new life and after a period in Manitoba ended up owning, and farming on, a parcel of land near Lake Kootenay in British Columbia. This was at first in partnership with a man named H.H. Sewell, and later with Henry’s brother, Archibald, a fellow OA.
In May 1915 he signed up for military service with the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force and was assigned to the 54th Battalion, travelling over to England that November. Henry spent the next several months training at Bramshott in Hampshire and eventually went over to France in August 1916, by which point he had been attached to the Machine Gun Section. For what remained of that summer he was posted to the Ypres salient before being transferred to the Somme in October. He was involved in the successful recapture of several trenches at the end of that month, before, on November 18th, being seriously wounded by a gunshot to the back. He died as a result of his injuries ten days later, on November 28th 1917, whilst in a field hospital at Etaples. He was survived by his widow, Dorothy, and their two sons.