ONE OUT OF TEN

Evening Star, Issue 17084, 1 July 1919, Page 6

ONE OUT OF TEN

FATHER, MOTHER, FOUR- SONS, AND THREE DAUGHTERS PERISH. There is no more tragic story of the war than on© which came to light at Woking on April 11, when Private Thomas William Smith, » boy soldier, was disc-barged from tho Army as pemwncnlly unfit for further service.' 'Phis lad, who is only 18 years of ago, lias had the experience of losing his father, mother, four brothers, and three sisters, all at tho hands of the enemy. Smith, who?© family lived at Croydon, was a boy of 13 years and 11 months when he enlisted, and' saw three years’ service in France, serving in turn with the East Sttrrovs. 10th Queen’s Royal We t .Surrey Regiment, Royal Engineers, and, lastly, the”sßU. Labor Company. FIVE KILLED ON ONE DAY. Bv -a .tragic coincidence his father and four brothers were all killed on the same dav—Ju'lv 15. 1916—with the first advance at'the Battle of the Somme. They were ail in th© 7th Queen’s R W.S. Regiment, tho father being Private Frank Smith, and the sons Privates Frank, vV-iil, Jack, and George Smith. The eldest of the boys was only 22. Private Smith’s mother and three sisters were killed in air raids, and an extraordinary* fact is that tho deaths occurred in three different nude, viz, : One sister killed at Addisoombe in 1 915 - , T , „ , „ Two sisters killed in tho East End of London in 1916. Tho mother killed in th© East End in 191?Private Smith would have liked to con-t-iiTuo soldiering had his health permitted. He has gone to Croydon to reside with Ins aunt, and hopes before long to find suitable employment.