Leonard Victor Harry SMITH (1897–1916)
(Leonard Smith is also listed on the St Andrew’s Church Roll of Honour and thus appears twice in the “tour”)
Leonard Victor Harry Smith was born in Bodicote in 1897, the youngest child of Henry Worville Smith (or Worvell Smith, born in Beckley in 1857) and Rebecca Nicholls (born in Baldon on 23 June 1859).
His parents were married in 1879 in the Headington Registration District, and had three children:
- Beatrice Emily Smith (born in Ibstone in 1885, registered third quarter and baptised there on 13 September 1885)
- Herbert George Smith (born in Ibstone in 1890 and baptised there on 4 May 1890, died aged six near the beginning of 1896 and buried at Marsh Baldon)
- Leonard Victor Harry Smith (born in Bodicote in 1897, registered fourth quarter).
Leonard’s father was a gardener, and at the time of the 1881 census he was living in a cottage in Aston Rowant with his young wife. They had evidently moved to Ibstone by the time their first child was born in 1885, and were there at the time of the 1891 census with their first two children, with the address specified as Copstone Hill.
By the time of Leonard’s birth in 1898 the family had moved to Bodicote, and the 1901 census shows them living in Main Street there, now with three-year-old Leonard.
The family then moved to New Headington, and at the time of the 1911 census were living at 58 Lime Walk ( then numbered 54) in All Saints’ parish. Leonard (13) was still at school, and his sister was not at home.
At the time war broke out, Leonard was employed as a gardener by Mrs Morrell of Headington Hill Hall.
In the First World War Leonard Victor Harry Smith volunteered in April 1915 when he was only seventeen and went to the front in January 1916. He served as a Private in 1st/4th Battalion of the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (Service No. 4750).
He was killed in action at the age of 18 in the course of an attack by his battalion at the Somme in France on 19 July 1916, and is buried at the Pozières British Cemetery at Ovillers-la-Boisselle (IV.J.5).
He is listed on the roll of honour of both All Saints’ Church in Highfield (the parish where his family lived) and of St Andrew’s Church in Old Headington. As he was working at Headington Hill Hall, it is likely that he was living at the top lodge or one of the other buildings at the top of the hill that came under the parish of St Andrew’s.
Left: Photograph of Leonard Victor Harry Smith’s grave in the Pozières British Cemetery, kindly supplied by British War Graves. The text reads:
[Emblem of the OBLI]
4750 PRIVATE
L. V. H. SMITH
OXFORD & BUCKS. LIGHT INF.
19TH JULY 1916. AGE 18
†
The grave of Leonard Smith’s parents (below) also commemorates Leonard himself and his brother and sister, all buried elsewhere:
In Memory of
REBECCA SMITH
BORN JUNE 23 1859 DIED AUGUST 23 1933
(FROM HER LOVING HUSBAND AND DAUGHTER)
ALSO OF LEONARD HER SON KILLED IN FRANCE,
JULY 19TH 1916 AGED 18.
ALSO HERBERT GEORGE, ELDEST SON
INTERRED MARSH BALDON
AND HER HUSBAND HENRY WORVELL SMITH
DIED FEB 9TH 1940 AGED 82.
ALSO OF BEATRICE EMILY SMITH,
DIED JULY 17TH 1967, AGED 81.
Postscript
Leonard’s parents
- Mrs Rebecca Smith died at Lime Walk at the age of 74 on 23 August 1933 and was buried at Headington Cemetery three days later.
- Henry Worville Smith died in Lime Walk at the age of 82, and was described as a gardener: he was buried with his wife on 13 February 1940.
Leonard’s only surviving sibling
- Beatrice Emily Smith (born 1885) did not marry, and died in Hertfordshire on 17 July 1967 at the age of 81.
See also
- CWGC: Leonard Victor Harry Smith
- Oxford Chronicle, 4 August 1916: Obituary of Leonard V. H. Smith, with photograph
- Oxford Journal Illustrated, 30 August 1916, “Heroes of the War”: photograph of L. V. H. Smith of Headington, who had died the previous month (shown above with kind permission of Oxfordshire County Council, Oxfordshire History Centre)
- Wikipedia: Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
- Wikipedia: The Battle of the Somme