Great War Military Cross recipient and later casualty 1914-1915 Star and Victory Medal pair awarded to Captain J.R. Smith, 16th (Church Lad’s Brigade) Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps who arrived with his Battalion to France on 17th November 1915. He would first go into the trenches in the Givenchy Sector on 2nd January 1916 immediately coming under a very heavy bombardment. He would later be awarded the Military Cross in the London Gazette for his gallantry at High Wood on 21st July 1916 which also saw him wounded. Having recovered, he would return to the Western Front in November 1916 and would be killed in action on 20th May 1917 during his Battalion’s attack on the Hindenburg Line in front of Croisilles. He was later described by a fellow officer as a ‘fine soldier and born leader of men’.
Pair: 1914-1915 Star; (CAPT. J.R. SMITH. K.R. RIF. C.) Victory Medal; (CAPT. J.R. SMITH.)
Condition: Nearly Extremely Fine
James Rockliffe Smith was the son of Mrs. R.V. Smith of Great Clowes Street, Higher Broughton, Manchester. He joined the 16th (Church Lad’s Brigade) Battalion, Kings Royal Rifle Corps upon its formation in September 1914 being commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant (Temporary) on 24th September 1914, a Lieutenant on 15th February 1915 and a Captain on 11th November 1915.
Smith accompanied his Battalion to France on the 17th November 1915. The battalion first went into the trenches in the Givenchy sector on 2nd January 1916 and immediately came under a very heavy bombardment which lasted all day. Casualties were heavy, a long period of ordinary trench warfare followed. As part of the 100th Brigade, the 16th Battalion took part in the many attacks from 6th July 1916. On the 21st July while covering the retirement of the 19th Brigade, the 16th King’s Royal Rifle Corps were ordered to move up and consolidate the south end of High Wood, the companies had hardly got into position before the enemy started a bombing attack. At this Captain Smith was wounded, the attack was driven off.
Smith would later be awarded the Military Cross in the London Gazette of 1st January 1917 for his gallantry on that day.
After a period of convalescence in England Captain Smith returned to the front in November 1916.
On 20th May 1917, the 33rd Division, of which the 16th Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps were part took part in an attack on the Hindenburg Line in front of Croisilles. The Battalion arrived in its position at 11.40pm on the 19th, their objective was the Fontaine-Croisilles road. D Company, under the command of Captain Smith, was in the third wave in line of column of sections in single file. At 5.05am, the attack began, the first objective were taken by the leading waves, C & B Companies, the third and fourth waves push on to the support trench. This line, was strongly held and the attacking companies were thrown back with heavy loss, only one officer not being a casualty. It was here that Captain Smith was killed in action while leading his company in the attack.
An officer would subsequently write:
‘A fine soldier and a born leader of men, who were always ready to follow him anywhere. Like everything else he took in hand, he put his heart and soul into his soldiering and proved a most capable and trustworthy officer, and one who would have gone far had he been spared. He was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry in the fighting at High Wood in July 1916. He took a zealous interest in the Church Lads’ Brigade, and was a keen athlete, being Captain of the Broughton Cricket Club and the North Manchester Association Football Club. Unmarried.’
