I am the proud daughter of Harold Smith, 1916-1955. I know relatively little about my father as I was only 3, when he died and apparently, he spoke little about the war. I want to find out about his war service and time in the TA before and after WW2 in order to help preserve his memory. I am doing this for myself but also for my children who never knew him.
Hello Gillian If you have not done so already you need to apply for his service records - Requests for personal data and service records: a detailed guide - GOV.UK TD
Welcome aboard, Gillian. Tricky Dicky has it right: apply for service records, post results here and we'll help you dissect them and suggest avenues of investigation. Good luck.
Hello and welcome, we'll try to help but obviously only with access to his Service Record (once you've applied and received it) will expert Pals here enable you to make the most sense of it. Having been born in 1952, it's obvious you would know little at first hand about him, but has anything at all of his been passed down to you? Any photos, letters, medals or other mementoes that if scanned and added here may give us a few starting points. He seems to have died extremely young, do you know if this could have been as a result of his wartime service? Wounds, scars, etc etc. It almost sounds as if he was a PoW with the Japanese, but that's just a bit of wild speculation, so whatever you can add will help. You specifically mention the TA BEFORE and after the War.... do you know for certain that he was a Territorial before 1939? You indicate that he stayed in the TA after WW2, again, any definite info that may help us? Obviously finding a "Smith" is looking for a haystack, rather than a needle, do you know where he was born, parents, address(es) etc? If you can't find anything, don't worry, we'll wait until you have his records!
Gillian, good luck with your research, there is a lot of knowledge around here and you will get a great deal of help. To get things going I would suggest that you summarise some of the information you have put on Ancestry and post a couple of the photos on this site. That should attract some of the Royal Artillery experts that are around here. As has already been suggested, if you haven’t got them get hold of his service records, in the meantime a search of the London Gazette with his surname and service number produces the landmarks of his career. You are probably aware that his medal group contains the 39-45 Star, Africa Star, Italy Star, Defence Medal and War Medal. The other is the Efficiency Medal, the award date of which is in the Gazette. Good luck.
Thank you all for your very helpful advice. I have never used a forum like this before and am probably doing everything incorrectly. I do have access to his medals - see above but don't know what they all are. Africa Star? Italy Star - maybe all the medals listed in previous post. Going away for 2 weeks over Christmas so my investigations will come to a temporary halt but I shall be continuing once I get back. The tips you have given me are brilliant. Thank you again. Gillian
Hello Thank you so much for getting in touch. I apologise for the fact that I am a complete novice when it comes to websites such as this. I don't really have a clue how to reply to posts. Harold was born on September 09 1916 in Houghton-le-Spring, Co Durham, possibly in Easington Lane. His father was John Smith -again, no middle name. He died of Hodgkin's Disease at the age of 38 but my mother always said he had suffered badly from desert sores (he was in the Quattara Depression in Egypt and the sun was a major problem for him being red-haired and very fair-skinned). He was known I think as "Ginger Smith". At the time there was some talk of the sores having a link to his cancer but I don't think there was really a link. He was definitely in North Africa and Italy. He did leave a photo album of little black and white snaps mostly of his time in North Africa but he died before finishing it. They are fascinating but I wish he had been able to give more info about precise locations and the nature of what he was doing. "Gun emplacements" is something my mother would refer to... in 1945 (?) he was posted to Salisbury Plain, I think to Larkhill and by this stage, he was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant. My mother was in the ATS there and they married in September 1945. I am " fairly" sure that Harold was in the TA before the war but not 100%. He was definitely in the TA post -War. I am attaching his confirmation that he was being promoted to Major dated Dec 1954. He was very ill by that stage. I am wondering if they speeded things up for him? I also have access to his medals so am uploading photos of these as well. My next task, when I get back home after Christmas, will be to apply for his service records. I didn't realise you could do this. I am very grateful for your encourage and advice. Thank you. Best wishes Gillian McKim
Indeed you were Gillian, but you are learning fast. That's why my first posting was a Big question mark. Put some of the brilliant desert photos on here. It looks as if he did a lot of surveying.
These are the entries I could find from London Gazette: 22 SEPTEMBER, 1944 https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/36711/supplement/4376/data.pdf The undermentioned Cadets to be 2nd L ts.: — ROYAL REGIMENT OF ARTILLERY. 4th June 1944:— Harold SMITH (327427) 2 MARCH, 1951 https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/39160/supplement/1100/data.pdf The following Officers are awarded the Efficiency Medal (T erritorial): — R.A. Lt. H. SMITH (327427). 18 MAY, 1951 https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/39229/supplement/2741/data.pdf ROYAL REGIMENT OF ARTILLERY. The undermentioned Lts. from Emerg. Comrmi., to be Lts.:— Harold SMITH (327427), 20th Feb. 1951, with seniority 25th May 1947. 11 JANUARY, 1952 https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/39436/supplement/246/data.pdf TERRITORIAL ARMY. ROYAL REGIMENT OF ARTILLERY. The undermentioned Lts. to be Capts.:— H. SMITH (327427), 1st Nov. 1951. 17 DECEMBER, 1954 https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/40351/supplement/7138/data.pdf ROYAL REGIMENT OF ARTILLERY. TERRITORIAL ARMY. The undermentioned Capts. to be Majs. on the dates shown:- H. STEWART-SMITH (327427), 2nd Nov. 1954. The chart linked here should help you identify each campaign medal & star as well as the order in which they are worn. WW2 Campaign Stars & Medals info thread
Wow, brilliant information. Thank you very very much. I can certainly upload photos from Harold's war album which seems to take him from Alamein to Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, maybe Turkey, Greece to Italy but further on in the album, Harold does not label the photos - it was a project he undertook when ill and I am guessing he was too unwell to write etc. I will upload some photos later but going to be busy for the rest of the day. Please do tell me if I am on the right lines. Am I replying to one person or everyone who has posted to me? Do I need to reply to each contributor individually? Sorry to be so ignorant about how these things work? Thank you again for all your fantastic help. Gillian
You are replying to the entire internet. If you don't want anything to be read or seen by the entire world don't post it here.
Here on the forum or this thread, you can reply to whichever post you want, in separate posts or all at once. Don't stress too much about how the forum works, we all picked these things up as we went along. Good luck with the research.
