Great War Western Front Battle of Loos Officer Casualty group awarded to 2nd Lieutenant D. Reeves-Smith, Royal Engineers. A former employee of the Canadian Northern Ontario Railway Company in Canada, and the son of a Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of the Savoy Hotel in London, he was commissioned with the Great War, and saw service with the 87th Field Company, a unit of the 12th Eastern Division, out on the Western Front from June 1915. He was mortally wounded whilst directing his men who were working in the firing line whilst the action was ongoing, and having been evacuated to a Regimental Aid Post, his body was no located later that same day, and it is presumed he died of his wounds and was buried in an unmarked grave.
Group of 3: 1914-1915 Star; (2.LEUT. D. REEVES-SMITH. R.E.); British War Medal and Victory Medal; (2.LIEUT. D. REEVES-SMITH.)
Condition: Good Very Fine.
Denys Reeves-Smith was born on 14th August 1889 in Birmingham, Warwickshire, the son of George Reeves-Smith, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of the Savoy Hotel in London, and his fie, Maud, of the Berkley Hotel, Piccadilly. Educated at Streete Court, Westgate-on-Sea, Kent, between 1899 and 1902, and then at Uppingham College, Rutland, from September 1903 to July 1907, this was followed by the City and Guilds Central Technical College in South Kensington from October 1907, where he studied electrical engineering and was awarded the Diploma of an Associate of the City and Guilds of London Institute on the completion of his course, becoming a Member of the Institute of Civil Engineers.
Having briefly worked in the Pupil Engineer’s Officer of the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway, in January 1911 he then went to Canada to Toronto to work for the Canadian Northern Ontario Railway Company, and was involved in the construction of railways in the Province of Quebec. He resigned his appointment in late 1913, and returned to England in January 1914, where he joined the Staff of Hal Williams & Co, of High Holborn, London, they being Factory Architects, Consulting and Supervising Engineers, where he worked as an Assistant Engineer, a position he soon relinquished however owing the declaration of war.
With the Great War, he enlisted into the Public Schools and Universities Force in September 1914, being posted to the 4th Public Schools Battalion, Royal Fusiliers - the City of London Regiment, and then received a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant into the Royal Engineers on 24th October 1914, being posted to the School of Military Engineering at Chatham, and then to the 87th Field Company, a unit of the 12th Eastern Division, which was then stationed at Seaford, Sussex. Reeves-Smith then saw service out on the Western Front from 2nd June 1915. Reeve-Smith was involved in the Battle of Loos, and was killed in action on 2nd October 1915. At the time of his death, he was employed directing the work of a party of men who were working in a part of the line where fighting was in progress. Hit and seriously wounded, he was evacuated to the Regimental Aid Post at the time, but at the end of the day he was found to be missing from the R.A.P., and it is presumed that he had died of his wounds in the meantime. Having no known grave, he is commemorated by name on the Loos Memorial. Sold with a copied image of the recipient.
