Current Information:

Age-19

7, Brodie Street, Old Kent Road

Wulverghem-Lindenhoek Road Military Cemetery, Belgium

On 7th February 1915, the 1st Cornwall Light Infantry battalion of 14th Brigade, 5th Division moved into trenches south-west of Messines where they remained until relieved on 11th February, the day on which Henry Smith was killed and which the battalion diary recorded as being a ‘quiet day’. The attrition rate among British soldiers on the Western Front was on average 300 each day and 60% of these were as a result of shellfire. When not involved in an actual battle it was either shell fire or a sniper’s bullet that caused most deaths and injuries.