SMITH, John Olly
| Service Number: | 6 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 24 August 1914, Enlisted at Sydney |
| Last Rank: | Sergeant |
| Last Unit: | 1st Field Ambulance |
| Born: | Yethong, New South Wales, Australia , August 1888 |
| Home Town: | Marrickville, Marrickville, New South Wales |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Ironworker |
| Died: | Killed In Action, Gallipoli, 24 November 1915 |
| Cemetery: |
7th Field Ambulance Cemetery Special Memorial, Row C, Grave 43 Headstone inscription reads: Their glory shall not be blotted out |
| Memorials: | Haymarket NSW Government Railway and Tramway Honour Board |
World War 1 Service
| 24 Aug 1914: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Sergeant, 6, 1st Field Ambulance, Enlisted at Sydney | |
|---|---|---|
| 20 Oct 1914: | Involvement 6, 1st Field Ambulance, ANZAC / Gallipoli, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '22' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Euripides embarkation_ship_number: A14 public_note: '' | |
| 20 Oct 1914: | Embarked 6, 1st Field Ambulance, HMAT Euripides, Sydney | |
| 24 Nov 1915: | Involvement Sergeant, 6, 1st Field Ambulance, ANZAC / Gallipoli, --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: 6 awm_unit: 1st Australian Field Ambulance awm_rank: Sergeant awm_died_date: 1915-11-24 |
Help us honour John Olly Smith's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Carol Foster
Son of John Barker Smith and Ann Smith. Husband of Eliza Smith of 197 Addison Road, Marrickville, NSW. Father of John Sidney Smith
Medals: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal
Biography contributed by John Oakes
John Olly SMITH, (Service Number 6) was born at Yethong about August 1888. John Smith worked in the Permanent Way Branch of the Railways.
John Smith enlisted at Sydney on 26th August 1914, giving his wife Eliza as his next of kin. His occupation was ironworker. He claimed several years of military service, including three years with the Army Medical Corps. This experience was probably crucial in his promotion to Acting Sergeant virtually immediately.
Smith embarked HMAT ‘Euripides’ at Sydney on 20 October 1914. He served in the 1st Field Ambulance.
He proceeded from Egypt to join the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force for Gallipoli on 5th April 1915 and probably landed there on Anzac Day. By 2nd July he was back in Egypt, admitted to the 15th General Hospital. On 15th August he embarked for England on the Hospital Ship ‘Asturias’. He was admitted to the King George Hospital Stamford Street, London on 28th August.
He re-joined the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force and returned to Gallipoli
On 24th November 1915 he was killed in action whilst attached to the 3rd Field Ambulance.
Sgt R B O’Carroll stated that:
‘At the time when he was killed he had gone for a walk towards the left with Sgt Gunn of the 3rd F.Amb. On the way both men were killed near to 13 Casualty Clearing Station not far from No. 2 Outpost. From the appearance of the surroundings it was supposed they had seen a shell burst and had gone to get the pieces, when another shell came in practically the same place and damaged Gunn on the head very seriously, and riddled Smith’s chest with bullets. The man from the CCS said death must have been instantaneous in both cases.’
Contemporary records locate his grave in the 7th Field Ambulance Cemetery, Gallipoli.
Among the personal effects found on Smith’s body was £4-10-0 in cash. This was duly processed and dispatched and noted by Smith’s brother who was also serving with the Field Ambulance. Somewhere between Gallipoli and his wife Eliza in Sydney the cash, or the clerical accounting for it went missing, though she knew, through her brother-in-law, of its existence. Many letters flew back and forth over several years and Smith’s files contain no resolution of the matter. The Commanding Officer of the Field Ambulance, who could not remember a particular case in any detail months later, pointed out that he was running a ‘doubled’ Hospital with only half the authorised personnel for a single one, with no Quartermaster, and that the Clearing Station had been violently shelled on 5th December ‘which may account for the absence of records on that date.’
Eliza was not to be satisfied and she had the Mayor of Berry, (who was also her brother) write on her behalf:
‘I wish to draw your attention to the fact that I was informed from your office some months ago that cash of £4-16-0 was found on the deceased body & that the amount could be collected from Victoria Barracks, Sydney. I have written several letters & I now have a reply stating that your office still holds the personal belongings & cash. You will please attend to same without further delay.
We hear a lot about recruiting but to my mind the likes of this is killing recruiting. Sergeant Smith was killed in November 1915 & yet his wife has not received what belongs to her.
I am so disgusted that if I do not receive deceased’s belongings & in particular the cash, I will forward same to our Representative, Wm A. Chapman and have the matter exposed in the House.’
By 1926 all burials in this particular area had been concentrated in the Embarkation Pier Cemetery, but Smith’s remains had not been located. Headstones of the standard pattern were erected, with the usual inscription, but preceded by the words: ‘Believed to be buried in this cemetery, actual grave unknown.’
A pension of £73 per annum was awarded to Smith’s widow and £13 per annum to his son John Sidney.
- based on the Australian War Memorial Honour Roll and notes for the Great Sydney Central Station Honour Board.