SMITH, Samuel James
| Service Number: | 490 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 22 August 1914, An original member of D Company 12th Bn. |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 52nd Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Avoca, Tasmania, Australia, 21 July 1893 |
| Home Town: | Queenstown, West Coast, Tasmania |
| Schooling: | West Zeehan State School, Tasmania, Australia |
| Occupation: | Labourer |
| Died: | Burnie, Tasmania, Australia, 6 March 1970, aged 76 years, cause of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Wivenhoe General Cemetery, Burnie, Tasmania |
| Memorials: |
World War 1 Service
| 22 Aug 1914: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 490, 12th Infantry Battalion, An original member of D Company 12th Bn. | |
|---|---|---|
| 20 Oct 1914: | Involvement Private, 490, 12th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '10' embarkation_place: Hobart embarkation_ship: HMAT Geelong embarkation_ship_number: A2 public_note: '' | |
| 20 Oct 1914: | Embarked Private, 490, 12th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Geelong, Hobart | |
| 1 Mar 1916: | Transferred AIF WW1, Private, 52nd Infantry Battalion |
Help us honour Samuel James Smith's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Stephen Brooks
Sam Smith was living at Zeehan, Tasmania where he was one of the first batch of Tasmanians to enlist during August 1914. He had just turned 21 years of age.
Sam served at the Anzac landing on 25 April 1915 with the 12th Battalion and was wounded in the leg during that first day on Gallipoli. He was evacuated to Alexandria and was admitted there with a slight gunshot wound to his thigh on 30 April 1915. He was sent back to Gallipoli a week later and managed to survive unscathed right through until the evacuation.
He wrote a letter home to his mother during September 1915 which was printed in the Zeehan and Dundas Herald. “….I have given Percy Rigbye up as dead, for when we landed on the 25th we were in the same boat. Morris and myself were the last out, and the bullets were plopping into the water like a handful of stones thrown into a pond. We reached the beach where we lost two men, and I had to wade out to the boat again for two picks and three shovels. When I got back the rest had gone away to the left, except Percy and another, who were carrying ammunition. When we got to the top of the ridge Percy was by himself; the fire got so hot that we had to crawl behind a bank. I sang out to him to come over to us, he left the ammunition and started towards us, but when I looked again, he was nowhere to be seen, so I think he must have been shot, for the Turks did not drive us back from our position, and so were unable to take any of our wounded as prisoners. It was the hottest thing I ever hoped to be in, all day the bullets and shrapnel rained thick and fast, and we were wondering when our turn would come, and I had just made up my mind that we were safe until the next morning, when I felt something hit my leg I had a look, but could see nothing, except a tear, so I put my finger in and saw it bleeding. I crawled back to Dr. Forster, and he dressed it, but it was not painful, so went up the hill again, where I met Claude Street with a broken arm. I reached my old place without a mishap, but had not been there long when the leg went dead, and I could hardly move it, but I got back to the beach alright, except for a few nasty falls, one of which gave my right shoulder a twist. Three weeks in hospital satisfied me, for I thought we would miss the fall of Constantinople if we did not hurry back, but the end is a good way ahead yet, I suppose….”
Sam transferred to the 52nd Battalion early in 1916, during the reorganisation of the AIF. He survived the heavy fighting at Mouquet Farm in September 1916 and shortly after was promoted to Lance Corporal. He was promoted to Corporal during March 1917. He was severely wounded in the foot at Messines on 9 June 1917 and was evacuated to England. He was several months in hospital before he was sent to Hurdcott in England to convalesce.
Eventually he returned to France in January 1918 where he rejoined the 52nd Battalion. During early March he was sent back to England, ‘for return to Australia on special duty.’
He left England on 13 March 1918, his file states ‘For GOC AIF on Staff’