Pte Oliver SmithPte Oliver Smith
52201 18th (Glasgow Yeomanry) Bn Highland Light Infantry Died: 08-Nov-18 Listed: Great Dunham Memorial Buried: Kezelberg Military Cemetery Son of Mr W Smith Gt Dunham Biography
Oliver was born in 1895 in Carleton Rode, the youngest son of William and Emma Jane who had two other sons Henry and Herbert. The family lived in New Buckenham in 1911 at which time Oliver was a groom. By the time Oliver joined the Army the family had moved to Great Dunham, where his mother was born and brought up. Oliver joined the Norfolk Regiment, we do not have attestation papers so do not know the date or when he was transferred to the Highland Light infantry. We know very little about Oliver’s military career but we do know that he was the last man from these villages to be killed in the war. In fact he died three days before the Armistice. At this time his battalion was moving across Belgium having broken out of the Ypres Salient and up the Menin Road. In fact Oliver is buried in a very small cemetery near Menin, Kezelberg Military Cemetery. This Cemetery was near an Australian Casualty Clearing Station so we can assume Oliver was wounded and taken there, but subsequently died. The battalion diary does not give information about casualties during the period leading up to Oliver’s death, but does note the Germans were still firing with artillery to slow the British advance. His parents remained in Great Dunham and are both buried in the graveyard. Biography written by Gordon Phillips |
Kezelbery Military Cemetery
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