Pte 269810 Patrick Joseph Smyth

• Age: 26
• From: County Down
• Regiment: 13th Kings
• Died on Wednesday 27th March 1918
• Commemorated at: Doullens Cc Ext 1
  Panel Ref: V.D.19

Patrick Joseph Smyth was born in 1892 in County Down, Ireland, the son of Patrick Smyth and his wife Mary Catherine (née McGivern) of 21 Louis Street, Liverpool.His parents were both born in County Down, his father in Loughadian in 1863, and his mother in Banbridge in 1865. They married in about 1888 and had five children. Their first child, Mary Adelaide, was born in Liverpool in 1889 but died at 5 months old. Bernard James was born in 1891, also in Liverpool.  The family is found on the 1891 census in Eldon Place, his father employed as a grocer and provision dealer.  By the time of Patrick’s birth they were in County Down, but returned to Liverpool by 1896, when Mary Eva was born, followed in 1907 by Edward Arthur Francis. 

At the time of the 1901 census his mother Mary Smith (sic) is at 102 Field Street, Everton with three children. She is 38, living on her own means.  Patrick is 8. His father is not in the household. 

The 1911 census, showing Patrick’s place of birth as Liverpool, finds the family at 21 Louis Street in Everton.  His father, 48, is a provision and dock porter, casual work, and his mother is 47.  Bernard is 20, a grocer’s assistant, Patrick, 18, is a joiner in the building trade, and Edward is 4.  Also in the household are his widowed uncle, Francis Smyth, 40, and a 35-year old lodger, David Devlin from Loughadian.  His sister Mary Eva Smith (sic) is an inmate in the Poor Sisters of Nazareth Home for Children and the Aged Poor in Great Crosby.

His father died in January 1915 at the age of 52.

Patrick enlisted at Liverpool; the amount of the War Gratuity suggests that he served about 15 months, enlisting in late 1916 or early 1917.  He served as Private 269810 in the 17th Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment and was at some point transferred to the 13th Battalion K.L.R.

It is not known when he was wounded, but Patrick died of his wounds on 27th March 1918 according to the CWGC (the pension cards and Soldiers’ Effects give the date as 28th March). He was 26 years old.

He now rests in Doullens Communal Cemetery Extension No.1, where his epitaph reads,

“ON WHOSE SOUL SWEET JESUS HAVE MERCY HIS MOTHER MARY C. SMYTH”.

Doullens was Marshal Foch's headquarters early in the First World War and the scene of the conference in March 1918, after which he assumed command of the Allied armies on the Western Front. From the summer of 1915 to March 1916, Doullens was a junction between the French Tenth Army on the Arras front and the Commonwealth Third Army on the Somme. The citadelle, overlooking the town from the south, was a French military hospital, and the railhead was used by both armies. In March 1916, Commonwealth forces succeeded the French on the Arras front and the 19th Casualty Clearing Station came to Doullens, followed by the 41st, the 35th and the 11th. By the end of 1916, these had given way to the 3rd Canadian Stationary Hospital (which stayed until June 1918) and the 2/1st Northumbrian Casualty Clearing Station.

From February 1916 to April 1918, these medical units continued to bury in the French extension (No 1) of the communal cemetery. In March and April 1918 the German advance and the desperate fighting on this front threw a severe strain on the Canadian Stationary Hospital. The extension was filled, and a second extension begun on the opposite side of the communal cemetery.

In May 1940, Doullens was bombed with Arras and Abbeville before being occupied by the Germans.

The COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION No 1 contains 1,335 Commonwealth burials of the First World War. There are also seven French and 13 German war graves from this period. Second World War burials number 35, more than half of them men of the Queen's Royal West Kents who died 20/21 May 1940.

The extensions were designed by Charles Holden.

His elder brother Bernard enlisted at about the same time as Patrick, and also served in the 13th Battalion. K.L.R. with the regimental number 269932.  Bernard was killed in action (although one pension card shows Died of Wounds) on 25th March 1918, just two or three days before Patrick died. Bernard has no known grave and is commemorated on the Arras Memorial. He was 27 years old.

Patrick's Army effects went to his mother, his sister Mary, and brother Edward.  

His mother received a War Gratuity of £4-10s and was awarded a pension of 15/- a week for both sons.

His mother died in 1926, aged 61.

Both brothers are commemorated in St. Anthony’s Church, Liverpool.

Patrick is also commemorated on Ireland’s National War Memorial.

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