Tom Smith (1893-1920)

Post date: Apr 12, 2018 6:31:40 PM

Tom in 1911 was living, aged 17, at Broomscroft in a 6 room cottage with his parents, James and Hannah, and one older sister. His mother had had 10 children of whom 9 were still alive but with only 2 now living at home. His father was a gardener but Tom is shown as a clerk at the brewery. He had attended Wateringbury school but which of two Tom Smiths won the attendance medal at the 1906 Empire Day is not known

Tom's service record is available and the following details are taken from these records. His service number was T4/038423 (initially T/787) . He was born on 4th June 1893 and he enlisted, aged 19 years 8 months, on 28th February 1913 in the Kent Brigade of Army Service Corps (A.S.C.). He was 5' 8¹/₂'' tall with a 32'' chest. He lived at Broomscroft and was employed by Mrs. Luke of Wateringbury as a draper's assistant. His next of kin was his father James. He re-enlisted after the outbreak of war on 26th November 1914 into the regular A.S.C. and joined the expeditionary force to France on 21st December 1914 until 27th February 1915 when he was admitted to the Military Hospital in Gravesend. In 1917 he is in Salonica, Greece where he is admitted to hospital with phthisis. He is discharged from the army on 1st September 1919 as 100% disabled (at the age of 26) with tuberculosis and is granted a pension of 40s. a week. The army correspondence indicates that his name inevitably caused confusion.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records 669 T. Smith s as casualties of WW1 but none of them has the service number T4/038423. There is a Tom Smith who was also a driver in the A.S.C. but his service number is T4/059194 and he died on 9th August 1918 when our Tom Smith was still alive. Tom died at Fort Pitt hospital Chatham in June 1920 after he was discharged 100% disabled from the army but before the war memorial on which he is included was finalised. On the school memorial he was clearly a very late addition. He was buried in the Wateringbury Cemetery whose records show

Tom Smith Ex soldier son of gardener age 27 died at Fort Pitt Hospital Chatham ¹ and was buried on 17th June 1920 grave number 168

Also in that grave:

Kate Elizabeth Age 17 buried 3/5/1900

Hannah Matilda Age 72 buried 1/10/1924

Illustrating the confusion caused by such a common name, there was another Tom Smith who lived in Wateringbury born 6 months before Tom above, on 24th December 1892, to the bakers at the crossroads. He served and survived the war and in 1939 (per 1939 Registration Act) was still a master baker living at the bakery with his wife Freda (nee Fagg) who he had married in 1921. This Tom Smith is remembered (by an unrelated John Smith) for driving a green Morris 10cwt. van.

Notes:

1. Fort Pitt (on boundary between Chatham and Rochester) was originally built as a fort during Napoleonic wars but subsequently in 1828 converted to a military hospital. This closed in the 1920s and the site is now Fort Pitt Grammar school. (source: Wikipedia).