Have You a Tiger In Your Family?

Rank : Captain

Army Number : 3950

Unit : Depot, 2nd Bn, 1st Bn, 8th Bn

Biography :

Aged 19 years and 6 months, Henry Spencer-Smith enlisted at Leicester into The Leicestershire Regiment on 4.12.1893 after which followed 7 years' Army Service and 5 years' Reserve Service. Most of that was spent in 2nd Bn, in Chatham, Ireland, and Egypt. He was promoted to Corporal on 8.9.1896. It is possible that he served for a while in 1st Bn in South Africa. He was appointed Lance-Sergeant on 26.7.1899 and promoted to Sergeant on 9.12.1900. He was transferred to the Egyptian Army on 26.7.1900. After home duty, on 12.1.1902 he was reassigned from his appointment with the Egyptian Army, was transferred to the Depot on 13.1.1903 and was discharged on termination of the first period of limited engagement on 30.12.1905 after altogether 12 years. He then became a chartered accountant and worked in London. He re-enlisted in The Leicestershire Regiment in late 1914, and served in 8th Battalion. In the rank of Temporary QM and Hon Lt, he was awarded a Mention in Despatches (L.G. 22.5.1917) and the M.C. (L.G 1.1.1918). Appointed Hon Captain on 22.2.1918 (L.G. 1.3.1918), as Adjutant of the Battalion and standing beside his CO, he was killed in action at Epehy on 21.3.1918 on the first day of the German Assault in the Spring Offensive. He was 43 years old. A grave to an unknown Leicestershire Regiment Captain in Epehy Wood Cemetery is thought to be that of Henry Spencer-Smith as he was the only full Captain of the 8th Battalion who fell that day. He is commemorated on Panels 29 and 30 of the Memorial at the Pozieres British Cemetery, Ovillers-la-Boisselle in France, and his name appears on the St. Helen's Church war memorial plaque located in the centre of the church in Ashby-de-la-Zouch.

CWGC:

SPENCER-SMITH, HENRY
Rank: Captain
Date of Death: 21/03/1918
Regiment/Service: Leicestershire Regiment 8th Bn.
Awards : M C
Panel Reference: Panel 29 and 30.
Memorial: POZIERES MEMORIAL

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S/3950 – CAPTAIN HENRY SPENCER-SMITH M.C.
8th Leicesters

Biography

Henry Spencer Smith, first son of Charles Henry Smith of Ashby de la Zouch, manager and secretary of the Ince Hall Rolling Mills Company, was born on 24th September 1874 at No 226, Ince Green Lane in Ince. The family moved to a larger house at No 202, where his brother Richard Arthur James Smith was born in 1878. In 1881, the boys and their mother Catherine Elizabeth née Spencer, who was born in London, were living with their father‘s parents, Richard Smith, a Confectioner and Cigar Merchant, and Sarah Smith at 84 Market Street in Ashby, where they no doubt went to school.

Military Service

Aged 19 years and 6 months, Henry enlisted at Leicester as a Private with the 2nd Leicestershire Battalion on 4th December 1893. He was promoted to Corporal on 8th September 1896. The Regiment moved to Ireland in 1898. He was appointed Lance-Sergeant on 26th July 1899, transferred to Depot on 4th October 1899 and promoted to Sergeant on 9th February 1900. On 26th July 1900 he was transferred to the Egyptian Army with the remark ’off Strength Auth‘y No. 0143/8479, War Office July 11th 1900“.

He resigned his appointment with the Egyptian Army under Auth‘y AG/N 20/8680 dated War Office, Cairo, 7th January 1902 and was ’retransferred“ to Depot on 12th January 1902. In February 1902 the 1st Bn (serving in the Boer War in South Africa) was further augmented by an increase of 120 men from the 2nd Bn in Egypt. Henry probably went with the Bn to Egypt, which accounts for why he became attached to the Egyptian Army for a while. He was most likely among the 120 2nd Bn men who reinforced the 1st Bn in South Africa.

Granddaughter Suzanne Dunant-Fiorina was indeed told by her grandmother that Henry served under Kitchener in the Boer War. At the time the 2nd Bn was in Egypt, Kitchener was Governor-General of The Sudan, and arrived in South Africa as Chief of Staff in December 1899. Henry was transferred again on 12th May 1902. On 13th January 1903 Henry was transferred to ’A.R.“ (Army Reserve) and ’discharged on termination of the first period of limited engagement“ on 30th December 1905 after 7 years‘ Army Service and 5 years‘ Reserve Service, altogether 12 years.

His civilian life thereafter was rather short-lived. In about 1907 he married Marjorie Masson Crack of Wandsworth Common in London, becoming the father of three daughters: Joan born at Addlestone in 1908, Mary at Clapham in 1911 and Barbara at Wandsworth in 1912. Having trained as a Chartered Accountant, he became a partner in the firm Laurie & Company, Employment Specialists in Accountancy & Engineering, of Bevois House, 28, Basinghall Street, London, EC2. War broke out in July and a son, Richard Henry Spencer-Smith, was born at Kingston-on-Thames on 3rd December 1914.

Although, as his widow recalled, conscription only started some two years later, he joined the newly-formed 8th Bn in 1914. Ex-Regular NCOs were offered generous terms to re-enlist in 1914 - the Army was desperate for men with experience to help them raise the New Army battalions comprised almost entirely of civilians (officers and men alike). Perhaps he also missed the military life and found accountancy comparatively tame. He came home in 1917 and stayed with his family, seeing his young son for the first time. Although there is nothing recorded in the War Diaries, he was Mentioned in Despatches in May 1917. Along with hundreds of other soldiers, he was awarded the Military Cross on 22nd May 1917 for ’conspicuous gallantry“ (MCs were awarded biannually for consistent good performance rather than a specific act of bravery) and this was presented in the New Year's Honours List in January 1918. The medal was stolen during a burglary in Cape Town in the 1970s. He was promoted from Temporary Quartermaster and Honorary Lieutenant to be Honorary Captain on 22nd February 1918.

The battle ground in late March 1918 had been enveloped in thick mist which made for difficult and dangerous combat conditions. Mention is made of gas attacks. On 21st March 1918, the day of the great German Offensive on the Western front, which eventually threw British forces back some 40 miles, his Battalion hurriedly completed the defence of ’pehy and waited. All battalions were under strength and holding too long a front. In the book 'The Tigers' the day is described: …Arrived at Fishers Keep HQ 8th Battalion, spent an hour with Colonel Utterson and his adjutant Spencer-Smith. Soon after I left the former was captured and the latter was killed. The Regiment's War Diary written at Allonville reads as follows:

’31-3-18. The 2 Composite Companies regained the Battalion in the afternoon of the 21st, the Battalion was immediately reorganised and reformed into the 4 companies. The following casualties were sustained by the Battalion during the heavy fighting brought about by the great German attack. Officers- LT COL AT. UTTERSON DSO Missing believed P of W 23-3-18 CAPT H SPENCER-SMITH M.C. Missing believed P of W.“

Lt. Col. Utterson was indeed a prisoner of war and completed a Red Cross report in Rastatt, Baden, Germany, stating his Adjutant, Capt. Henry Spencer-Smith, had died next to him after being shot in the head. In addition to a Red Cross telegram sent from Copenhagen on 13th August 1918 to the Central Prisoner of War Committee, Mrs. Spencer-Smith and her children learned of his death in a letter from P.o.W. Lieut. Col. A.T. Utterson, dated 4.6.1918, Rastatt, Baden in Germany, to Mrs. Utterson: "Will you ask your father to write a letter for me, to Mrs. Spencer-Smith, at Cleadon, The Gray, Eastbourne, to tell her that her husband (Capt. Spencer-Smith) was killed instantly at —pehy on the 21st March last. He was seated next to me at the time so there is no doubt." On a Red Cross Evidence Form, Howard Murray Jackson, 2nd Lieut. 8th Leicestershire Regiment, stated he was informed the deceased was killed outright near the —pehy-Gouzancourt road.

Henry's name appears on the St. Helen's Church war memorial plaque located in Ashby but not on the town memorial. His name is also inscribed on Panels 29 and 30 of the Memorial at the Pozieres British Cemetery, Ovillers-la-Boisselle in France. This Memorial relates to the "Kaiserschlacht" and commemorates over 14,000 casualties of the period of crisis in March and April 1918 when the Allied Fifth Army was driven back by overwhelming numbers across the former Somme battlefields, and the months that followed before the Advance to Victory, which began on 8th August 1918.

A grave to an unknown Leicestershire Regiment Captain in —pehy Wood Cemetery is doubtless believed to be his, for he was the only full Captain of the 8th Bn who fell on 21st March.

On 12th June 1919, Marjorie Spencer-Smith (a woman of great fortitude who was to be a War Widow for 60 years) was granted a Gratuity under Artc. 497 Royal Warrant for Pay“ o £163;162, less an 'overpayment“ including £163;163;24 children's allowance, as he had been paid up to the end of June. The net £163;60 was of little financial help, and it was quite a struggle to bring up the fallen officer's four children alone.

References - CWGC / AUK / TIGERS
WO 339/40780 The Leicestershire Regiment. Date: 1893-1918: 1928
WO 95/2165/1 8 Battalion Leicestershire Regiment Date: 1916 July - 1918 May
WO 95/2530/4 8 Battalion Leicestershire Regiment Date: 1914 Sept. - 1916 June

Held by: The National Archives, Kew

Date of Birth : 24.9.1874

Place of Birth : Ince, Cheshire

Date of Death : 21.3.1918

Place of Death : Épehy, France

Civil Occupation : Chartered Accountant

Period of Service : 1893-1905; 1914-18

Conflicts : Boer War, WW1

Places Served : Great Britain, Ireland, Egypt, South Africa, Flanders and France