25 March 2025
'Unknown' soldier's grave identified 107 years after his death
Members of the Smith family stand at the graveside with the military party. (Crown copyright)
The final resting place of a Devonian who served with the King’s (Liverpool Regiment) in the First World War has been named in France almost exactly 107 years after his death.
A rededication service for Captain (Capt) Hubert Leslie Smith was held on 25 March 2025 at his graveside in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Ham British Cemetery near Saint Quentin, France. The service was organised by the MOD’s Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre (JCCC) and was attended by serving soldiers of The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment and The Royal Yorkshire Regiment.
Capt Smith died on 24 March 1918 and after the war his remains were recovered and buried in Ham British Cemetery as an unknown captain of The King’s (Liverpool Regiment). As he was missing, Capt Smith was commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial.
The location of Capt Smith’s grave came to light after a researcher submitted a case to CWGC hoping to have identified his final resting place. After further investigation by the National Army Museum and JCCC, it was confirmed.
JCCC Caseworker, Rosie Barron, said:
“It has been a privilege to work with The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment to organise the rededication service for Capt Smith today and to have had his family present at the service. Although Capt Smith died 107 years ago, his memory has lived on within his family. It is important that men such as Capt Smith, who paid the ultimate sacrifice for their country, are honoured and remembered for their bravery.”
The Reverend Paul Robinson CF conducts the rededication service at Ham British Cemetery. (Crown copyright)
The service was attended by Capt Smith’s great nephews and their families, who had travelled from the UK and the USA to attend the service.
Peter Smith, great nephew of Capt Smith said:
“Today’s Smith family in both the UK and the USA were both surprised and pleased to have this opportunity to understand and recognise the life and service of a man we never met in person. Thank you JCCC and all those involved for discovering our relative and providing this opportunity to pay tribute to his life, service, and death from long ago.”
Reverend Paul Robinson CF, Chaplain to 4th Battalion The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, who conducted the service, said:
“It is a great honour and privilege to be asked to preside at the rededication service of Captain Hubert Leslie Smith. As an Army Chaplain, honouring the fallen is one of our most sacred tasks. It is our role to silently shepherd an often-beleaguered nation through grief and we revere those who have died and lay to rest those who have served our nation with dignity and honour and treat their families with respect and compassion. Memorials reflect the emphasis the British people place on the worth and value of the individual.”
The headstone was replaced by CWGC. Director for the France Area at the CWGC, Jeremy Prince, said:
"We are honoured to mark Capt Smith's grave with a new Commonwealth War Graves headstone, more than a century after his death. We will care for his grave, and those of his comrades at Ham British Cemetery, in perpetuity."
Captain Hubert Leslie Smith
Capt Hubert Leslie Smith. (copyright unknown) Captain Smith's new headstone at Ham British Cemetery. (Crown copyright)
Capt Smith was born on 19 February 1884 in Chagford on Dartmoor. He was one of six children born to the elementary school teachers George and Josephine Smith He trained as a schoolmaster at St Luke’s College, Exeter, and went on to work as a master at the Admiralty Schools in Greenwich. On 6 August 1914, he married Bertha Hilda Frances Rogulski at St Peter’s Church in Brockley, Lewisham.
Before enlisting into the Army on 8 January 1915 he had previous territorial service with 5th (Haytor) Volunteer Battalion The Devonshire Regiment in which he had held the role of Serjeant Instructor of Musketry. A keen rugby player, he was initially posted to 24th Battalion (2nd Sportsmen's) The Royal Fusiliers. He transferred to The King’s (Liverpool Regiment) on 17 April 1915 and was Commissioned into 19th Battalion: the same battalion his brother Captain Harold Aubrey Smith belonged. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in 1916 and to the rank of captain in 1917.
Capt Smith arrived on the Western Front on 7 November 1915 and saw action on the Somme in 1916. It was there that his brother, by then the adjutant, lost his arm and was invalided home. The battalion took part in the Battle of Arras in the spring of 1917 and the Third Battle of Ypres later that year. Capt Smith was awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre and Order of Leopold for his service in Belgium.
On 21 March 1918, the German Army launched Operation Michael, the first phase of their Spring Offensive with the aim of securing a final victory before American forces could arrive on the Western Front in numbers and tip the balance in favour of the Allies. By 23 March the 23rd Entrenching Battalion was in the line south of the Saint Quentin Canal to the west of Ham. That morning Capt Smith arrived with around 100 men of 19th Battalion The King’s (Liverpool Regiment) to support them.
At 7am on 24 March, the enemy attacked again. They were held off until about 9.30am when the line began to break and British forces retired, with the last man crossing the bridge at Rainecourt at around 1.30pm. Capt Smith was killed during the fighting that day. He was 34 years old.
His Commanding Officer wrote to his widow that Capt Smith had been ‘slightly wounded, but went back as the only Officer left, and was killed leading his men, upholding the best traditions of the British nation’.