SMITH E

Possibly Private Enoch Smith
9th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment
Service No 13966
Born Kingswinford, Staffordshire, resident Stourbridge, Worcestershire, enlisted Worcester
Killed in action on 19th January 1917
Buried in Amara War Cemetery, Iraq, Grave XXIV. B. 23.

Enoch Smith was born at Wordsley and his parents lived at Camp Hill.  By 1914 he was married and living at 202 Enville Street, Stourbridge.  He worked as a blacksmith at Messrs. G. Harrison and was one of the first local men to volunteer at the outbreak of war.  He volunteered for the Worcesters and joined the 9th (Service) Battalion along with many Stourbridge men.  The battalion joined the 13th Division and were sent in July 1915 to Gallipoli, which was a far cry from the Western Front.  Their experiences were frustrating and they failed to break the stalemate on the peninsula.  When they were evacuated in December, they did not return to Britain but were sent east to continue the struggle against the Turks in Mesopotamia.  Their urgent task was to rescue General Townsend’s force besieged at Kut.  They arrived in February 1916 and attempted a relief in April. It failed and Townsend’s force went into captivity.  The next advance was left until cooler weather and the crucial attack on Kut was made by the Worcesters on the 25th January 1917.  Kut fell the next day but 107 men had been killed in action.  Private Enoch Smith was killed in the advance to Kut on the 19th.  He is also commemorated on the St. Thomas’s church memorial.

Researched by The Black Country Society.

Or

Possibly Private Thomas Enoch Smith
B Company 10th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment
Service No 16509
Born and resident Stourbridge, Worcestershire, enlisted Worcester
Killed in action aged 38 on 3rd October 1915
Son of William Holmes Smith and Sarah Smith; husband of Mary Emily Smith, 188 High St., Lye, Stourbridge
Buried in Brown’s Road Military Cemetery, Festubert, France, Grave I. G. 3