Arthur Smith - Rifles Brigade

[Colin M-S]

On 11/06/2021 at 20:59, stiletto_33853 said:

Hi Colin,

 

I am afraid to say that he is not in any of the Attestation registers.

 

 

Andy

Hi Andy,

With the help of Ancestry.com and DNA matches I finally managed to trace Arthur Smith. He died in 1953 and was buried with the name Arthur Langdon. It turns out that this was his stage name and after WW1 he worked as a variety artist/actor/elocutionist for several decades.

I have a newspaper article describing a court case in which Arthur Smith was listed as being a Sergeant in the 5th Battalion, Rifle Brigade, in ward 3, Military hospital, Broadway, Sheerness , the article was dated 5th August 1916. It's likely that he was in Kent from April 1915.

He pops up as Arthur Langdon in Sheerness from 1919 onwards, so it looks like he may have served with the 5th Battalion for the remainder of the war.

Looking at old posts on the forum, do you know whether there is there an A Smith listed as serving in the 3rd and 5th Battalions, either discharged with a silver medal or on the victory medal roll? Be nice to know if he did serve overseas. 

Regards

Colin