SMITH Henry Eustace

Evesham Journal and Four Shires Advertiser, 6th October 1917:
A HAMPTON MAN DIES FROM WOUNDS
Mrs. W. Smith, of Cheltenham-road, Hampton, Evesham, received a letter a few days ago from a soldier in France stating that her son, Pte. Henry Eustace (Jack) Smith, of the Worcester Regt., was wounded.  In the letter he says that he and “Jack” had arranged in case of misfortune to inform their parents, and stated that “Jack” had got wounded by a shell about September 23, but he was unable to say to what extent.  He was wounded while assisting other wounded comrades.  A letter from a nurse at the hospital in France was received on Wednesday by Pte. Smith’s wife, who lives with his mother and at the time visiting her relatives at Winchcombe, stating that he had been admitted in hospital and died on September 26.  Pte. Smith was 20 years of age, and at one time a telegraph messenger at Evesham Post Office.  After leaving the Post Office he assisted his father, who was a market gardener.  He married twelve months ago, and leaves a widow and a young child.  He joined the army in March 1916, and went out to France in April of this year.  His mother, whose husband died about twelve month ago through anxiety and overwork on his land, has appealed several times to the military authorities for her son to be released from the army to assist her in the cultivation of her land, was unsuccessful in her appeal, and at the present time has no one working for her.  She has three children, the youngest being twelve years of age.

(Henry Eustace Smith married Ada Webb in 1916 and had a daughter Constance A. Smith. Henry was one of four children of William Arthur and Ellen Elizabeth Smith (nee Davis) who were married in 1886. During the 1911 census the family were living at 5 Port Street, Bengeworth, and the three other children were Daisy, Olive and Sylvia. The father William died in 1916, Aged 50 and his wife Ellen, who was from Gloucestershire, died in 1934, Aged 66. They are buried in Waterside Cemetery, Section A, Plot No.2431, but there is no monument.)

The clock on Hampton St Andrew’s Church is a war memorial to WW1 and is inscribed with the words: War Memorial 1914-18.

The tenor bell is inscribed “also in memory of the sons of Hampton who died for the sacred cause of liberty and freedom”. The name of Alfred Bowell is inscribed on one of the bells, his granddaughter is currently a bell ringer at the church.

A photograph of Private H.E. Smith of Evesham can be found in Berrow’s Worcester Journal Supplement, Saturday 13th October 1917, available at Worcestershire Archives.