Capt Hubert Leslie Smith (CDL, CDG)

• Age: 34
• From: Newton Abbott, Devon
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 19th Btn
• K.I.A Sunday 24th March 1918
• Commemorated at: Pozieres Memorial
  Panel Ref: P21-23

Image courtesy of National Army Museum 

Hubert Leslie was born on 19th February 1884 in Chagford, Devon, the son of George Smith and his wife Josephine Jeanette (nee Dash). He was baptised on 21st March 1884. His father was the headmaster of Chagford School and founding member of the Chagford Coy in 1896. George was to serve as a Col.Sgt with the Coy until retiring in 1910. His parents married in the Isle of Wight in 1883; Leslie was the eldest of their six children, all born in Chagford. His siblings were John Wilfred (who died in infancy), Harold Aubrey, George Russell (died in infancy), Daisy Winifred, and Dorothy Marion.

The 1891 Census shows the family living at Tavistock House, Mill Street, Chagford. His father is a school master born in Drewsteignton in 1860, whilst his mother is a school mistress born in the Isle of Wight in 1861. Hubert is shown incorrectly on the Census as Herbert, he is 7 years of age and a scholar. He has a younger brother listed as Harold A. Both brothers are shown as born in Chagford. There is also listed a lodger, Bessie Weekes, a school mistress aged 22 and a servant, Emily Lake aged 20.

Leslie enrolled in the Chagford School in 1889.

The 1901 Census shows the family, without Hubert living at Cawsand View, New Street, Chagford. Both parents are resident and still employed as school master and school mistress. Hubert's siblings are now shown as Harold aged 13, Daisy 9 and Dorothy 7. Also present is George Smith described as a nephew and  a servant. 

Leslie, aged 17, is found boarding in St. Leonard’s Avenue in Exeter, employed as a pupil teacher.

By 1911 he is aged 27, and an assistant schoolmaster with the Admiralty, boarding at 12 Shardeloes Road in New Cross, Deptford,  London. His brother Harold, 23, is a school master in Torquay. His parents, both elementary school teachers, are still at Cawsand View with daughter Daisy, 19, who is a part-time student.

Prior to the outbreak of war he was a schoolmaster at the Royal Hospital School in Greenwich (the school later moved to Holbrook in Suffolk).

Two days after war was declared, on 06th August 1914, Leslie married Bertha Hilda Frances Rogulski in St. Peter’s Church in Deptford. Both gave their address as 167 Breakspears Road. He was 30, and Bertha 21. No children were born to the marriage.

He was Commissioned Second-Lieutenant and Gazetted to the 19th Battalion on 26th April 1915.

This was confirmed in the local press:

Hubert Leslie Smith has been gazetted Second Lieutenant in the King's Liverpool Regiment. For 9 years he was a member of the Chagford detachment of G company, 5th Devons of which company has father was for such a long time the colour-sergeant. On promotion to Lance Sergeant he attended a course at Hythe School of Musketry, passing with distinction, and taken second place. He was then appointed to the musketry staff of the 5th Devons, which position he held for 4 years, and which his permanent residence in London compelled him to resign. In January he enlisted in the 2nd Sportsman's Battalion (Royal Fusiliers) and was soon selected for the musketry duties. He is now undergoing a five weeks officer's training course of training near Liverpool.

His brother Harold Aubrey Smith, was already serving with the Battalion, holding the rank of Captain. They both went to France with the Battalion in November 1915, Harold as Captain in command of No.2 Company and Leslie as a Second Lieutenant attached to No.4 Company. Harold was later wounded in action at Trones Wood, on 11th July 1916, after which it was necessary to amputate one of his arms. He was subsequently invalided out of the Army. 

Leslie remained with the Battalion, attending a course at the 30th Divisional Grenade School from 19th November until 1st December 1916, after which he was granted UK leave. He was promoted to Lieutenant on 24th September 1916, and Captain on 19th March 1917. He served with the Battalion during the Battle of Passchendaele from 31st July 1917, and during a period of heavy shelling near Bodmin Copse on December 3rd, 1917, he took over temporary command of the Battalion when all other senior ranks were wounded. Presumably, he performed his duties well during 1917, as he was awarded two Belgian decorations, The Chevalier de Leopold and the Croix de Guerre, during this time. He was the only Pals officer to be awarded both of these decorations.

He was killed in action on 24th March 1918, after the German breakthrough around St Quentin. The 19th Battalion had been stationed behind the Battle Zone near Germaine, when the German attack began on 21st March. It manned the battle stations, and took the brunt of the assault on Roupy on the 22nd when it was all but wiped out. It then retired through Fluquieres, and Ham eventually reaching the canal bank between Esmery Hallon and Moyencourt. By this time it had sustained losses of 19 officers and three hundred and forty other ranks.

By the morning of the 24th March, a further withdrawal became necessary and although the Battalion was harried throughout the day, it eventually reached Roiglise, spelt (Roye Eglise in the Battalion War Diary), at 19.30 pm. It had pulled back about seventeen miles since 21st March and lost virtually all of its fighting strength. Although the Battalion War Diary states that two officers, Major C W Biggs and Lieutenant J N Parker and sixty other ranks became casualties during the course of the day, Captain Smith is not mentioned at all. This is almost certainly because of the chaotic situation brought about by the retreat, as there is no doubt that Smith lost his life on that day. He was aged thirty four.

Leslie's body was thought to have been lost and he was initially commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial to the Missing of the Fifth Army at Pozieres, Somme, France. 

The POZIERES MEMORIAL relates to the period of crisis in March and April 1918 when the Allied Fifth Army was driven back by overwhelming numbers across the former Somme battlefields, and the months that followed before the Advance to Victory, which began on 8 August 1918. The Memorial commemorates over 14,000 casualties of the United Kingdom and 300 of the South African Forces who have no known grave and who died on the Somme from 21 March to 7 August 1918.

The cemetery and memorial were designed by W.H. Cowlishaw, with sculpture by Laurence A. Turner. The memorial was unveiled by Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien on 4 August 1930.

However, there was a rededication service on 25th March 2025 at Ham British Cemetery whereby Leslie's grave is now marked and fully identified as Captain H L Smith. Members of his family attended the service and travelled from the UK and USA. Also in attendance were members of the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment which was formed in 2006 and was formed by merging The King's Own Royal Border Regiment, The King's Regiment (of which Leslie was a member of when he was killed) and the Queen's Lancashire Regiment.

Leslie now rests at Ham British Cemetery. 

In January, February and March 1918, the 61st (South Midland) Casualty Clearing Station was posted at Ham, but on the 23rd March the Germans, in their advance towards Amiens, crossed the Somme at Ham, and the town remained in German hands until the French First Army re-entered it on the following 6th September.

Ham British Cemetery was begun in January 1918 by the 61st Casualty Clearing Station as an extension of Muille-Villette German Cemetery.

In 1919 the graves in the British Cemetery were regrouped and others were added from other cemeteries. 

Ham British Cemetery contains 485 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the First World War. 218 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 14 soldiers, believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials record the names of 39 casualties known to have been buried in other cemeteries whose graves were not found.

MUILLE-VILLETTE GERMAN CEMETERY adjoins the West side of the British Cemetery. It now contains the graves of 1,113 identified and 420 unidentified German soldiers.     

Following his death a report appeared in the local press which gave a detailed background into Leslie's life and service. 

"Capt. H. Leslie Smith, eldest son of Mr and Mrs G. Smith, Chagford, was killed in action on March 24th. He held an appointment on the education staff of the Greenwich Admiralty School, and was well known in Devon through his connection with the 5th Devon Territorials in which battalion he was for sometime Sergeant-musketry instructor, and his father was for many years colour-sergeant of the Moreton and Chagford Co. Captain Leslie Smith was a prominent rugby footballer and sub-captain of his college team, St Luke's of Exeter. He subsequently played in the London Devonians. He was also captain of the Greenwich Rifle Club. On the outbreak of the war he joined as a private and was given a commission in May 1915. He was in the Somme offensive in 1916 where his brother, now Captain and Adjutant Harold A Smith (home service) was wounded losing an arm. For his services on the field in the Arras offensive, Easter 1917, Leslie Smith was promoted captain and recommended for the Military Cross. in August 1917, he was awarded the Chevalier de l'Ordre de Leopold, and only a fortnight before his death he was awarded the Croix de Guerre (Belge). His commanding officer in informing Mrs Leslie Smith of this heroic the Devonian's death, says: "In the heavy fighting we have just been through he was slightly wounded. but went back and was killed fighting and leading his men, upholding the best traditions of the British nation. A great friend of mine, and of great assistance to me ever since I have had the honour to command the battalion, I losing in him a good soldier and a brave man."  

Probate records show:

SMITH - Hubert Leslie of 167 Breakspears Road, Brockley, Kent died 24th March 1918 in France. Probate, London 29th May to Bertha Hilda Frances Smith widow. Effects £232 10s 1d.

Bertha remarried in 1920 to Leonard J. Clark.

Leslie is commemorated on the following Memorials:

Parish war memorial at Chagford, Devon

Memorial Window in the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich (destroyed in the Blitz)

Memorial Book, Royal Naval College, Holbrook

‘Officers Died in the Great War ‘ incorrectly gives his first name as Herbert.

Hubert's brother Harold died in 1969 in Liverpool.

Grateful thanks are extended to James Uzzell for the photograph of Hubert Leslie Smith's headstone, following the rededication service at Ham British Cemetery this week. Thanks to James' dedication over the preceeding four years, Captain Smith now has a headstone and a butial place marked for all time.  

We currently have no further information on Hubert Leslie Smith, If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.