Smither, H
(1893 - 1917)
Key Facts
DATE OF BIRTH:
24th November 1893
YEARS ATTENDED THE COLLEGE:
1905 - 1910
HOME ADDRESS WHEN AT THE COLLEGE:
Highview, Mount Nod Road, Streatham
REGIMENT
Royal Flying Corps
FINAL RANK:
2nd Lieutenant
DATE OF DEATH:
6th July 1917
AGE AT DEATH:
23
WHERE HE DIED (or was wounded)
Cambrai
LOCATION OF GRAVE OR MEMORIAL:
Cambrai East Military Cemetery. VII A 5
2nd Lieutenant Harold Smither
Harold was born on November 24th 1893, the youngest of six children of a carman, Henry Smither, and his wife, Louisa. He came to the College in September 1905 and was a pupil for the next five years, leaving at the end of 1910 whilst a member of the Modern Lower Fifth.
In September 1914, shortly after the declaration of war, Harold enlisted as a member of the University & Public Schools Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, with whom he went over to France during 1915. In the summer of 1916 he took a commission in the Royal Flying Corps with whom underwent training as a pilot, qualifying in early 1917. He was posted to France once more as a member of the newly created 48th Squadron, and for the next several months was engaged in much heavy aerial combat around Arras. On July 6th he was part of a group on patrol east of Cambrai when they were engaged by a squadron of German aircraft; Harold’s plane was brought down behind enemy lines and his body buried by the Germans.
