Dartmoor soldier's grave identified almost 107 years after he died on WWI battlefield

THE grave of a solider from Chagford who served during the First World War has finally been identified almost exactly 107 years after he died on a battlefield in France.

- by STAFF REPORTER

A rededication service, at which Captain Hubert Leslie Smith's name was added to his gravestone, was held recently at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) Ham British Cemetery near Saint Quentin.

Capt Smith was born on February 19, 1884, at Chagford on Dartmoor, one of six children to school teachers George and Josephine Smith.

He trained as a schoolmaster at St Luke’s College, Exeter, and went on to work as a master at the Admiralty Schools in Greenwich.

Before enlisting on January 8, 1915, he had previous territorial service with 5th (Haytor) Volunteer Battalion The Devonshire Regiment in which he had held the role of Sergeant Instructor of Musketry.

A keen rugby player, he was initially posted to 24th Battalion (2nd Sportsmen’s) The Royal Fusiliers but transferred to The King’s (Liverpool Regiment) on April 17, 1915, and was Commissioned into 19th battalion, the same battalion to which his brother, Captain Harold Aubrey Smith, belonged. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in 1916 and to the rank of captain in 1917.

Capt Smith arrived on the Western Front on November 7, 1915, and saw action on the Somme in 1916.

It was there his brother, by then the battalion’s adjutant, lost an arm and was invalided back to Britain. The battalion took part in the Battle of Arras in the spring of 1917 and the Third Battle of Ypres later that year.

Capt Smith was awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre and Order of Leopold for his service in Belgium.