NAM.2023-08-6-3-1

Army Form B104-82 sent to George Smith informing him of the ‘death’ of his son, Gnr Alfred Lionel Smith, Royal Field Artillery, sent from the Record Office in Woolwich on the 27th of September 1914. Gnr Smith (74199) of the 122nd Battery, 28th Brigade, RFA is said to have been killed in action at Le Cateau on the 26th of August and was indeed shot twice - once in the ankle and once in the back. He was reportedly the first man in his home town of St Albans in Hertfordshire who had been killed in the war. However this was not the case and Gnr Smith woke up on a train being transported to a Prisoner of War camp in Germany. A POW for the remainder of the War, Gnr Smith escaped three times but was recaptured. His mother Caroline died in 1915 believing her son had been killed, although his father George was informed of his POW status before Alfred eventually returned home. 26 years after being shot in the back in 1914 Alfred collapsed in the street and it was discovered that he had been carrying the bullet in his left lung all this time. It was successfully removed in an operation watched by 32 surgeons from around the world. From a collection of four archives relating to Gnr Alfred Lionel Smith, 122nd Battery, 28th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery. Associated with World War One (1914-18).

World War One, POWs (1914-1918)

Le Cateau, Battle of, 1914 (World War One, Western Front 1914-1918)