Geoffrey Watkins Smith - 13th Rifle Brigade, kia 10/7/16

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** Rifle Brigade, B.E.F.

July 2, 1916.

Dear Mother,

It seems likely that in the near future I shall have time principally for postcards, as we are on the move again; we don't know where. Everything is very busy, and the guns are going pretty continuously. It seems we are taking a good few prioners and getting on a bit. I gether the Boche is having rather a bad time just now.

Love to all from

Geoff.

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When the letter of 2nd July was written the battalion was still at Bailleuval, where they paraded at 10.30 am for Divine Service.

On the 3rd they started their move, the battalion was ordered to Humbercourt, reaching their billets at 11.30 pm.

On the 4th they were in Humbercourt where they had rapid fire exercises and kit inspection.

Andy

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** Rifle Brigade, B.E.F.

July 4, 1916.

Dear Mother,

We had a good march yesterday and are now in a village very thickly surrounded by trees and down in a hollow, with a stream running through it; rather damp and slack, but very pretty. The horse-flies were so bad coming through the woods that my horse got very restive and I was afraid might kick some of the men, but I picked up a bit of tree and swished it about to keep the flies off as far as possible. Just at present we are not doing anything very exciting, and ourmovements will be regulated according to what happens during the next week or so. I expect that the offensive movement will take some considerable time, and that events will not move particularly quickly.

I got a letter from D. telling me that Hugh was Commandant of the school, which is very good news........

Love to all from

Geoff.

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Geoffrey's Room in New College

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After Geoffreys letter of the 4th July there only came one field postcard, dated 7/7/16, and signed 'G.W. Smith.'

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War Diary:-

5/7/16

Brigade Holiday allowed. At 5pm orders were received to be ready to move at once by motor bus to Bresle, about four and a half miles W. of Albert. During the night 5th-6th the movement was carried out, Bresle being reached about 8am on the 6th. The Transport marched in during the afternoon.

6/7/16

At 5pm the Battalion received orders to march to billets at Albert to act as a reserve to the 56th Infanty Brigade to which it was temporarily attached. Billets in Albert were reached about 8pm.

7/7/16

At 5am the Battalion was warned to hold itself in readiness to occupy the TARA - USNA Line across the Albert - Bapaume Road, about 1 mile NE of Albert. At 9am orders were recived to reach this point at 10am. The Battalion marched by platoons, the last coming into position at 11am. The Battalion remained halted during the whole of the day. The bombardment of the enemy's lines was heavy and continuous from 5am reaching its greatest intensity about 7.30am when troops of the 19th Division and the Corps on its right and left attacked the enemys lines, on the whole with good results.

[marina]

How chilling to see that peaceful empty study knowing where its erstwhile occupant is.

Marina

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7/7/16 continued

The 13th Bn Royal Fusiliers made good progress to the W. of La Boisselle. The enemy's infantry with the important exception of their machine guns, made a very poor resistance, the Division in the sourse of the day sending in about 600 prisoners. Constant heavt rain storms fell during the day and the night following. At 8pm the Bn was ordered to move at 10.15pm to relieve the 7th Loyal North Lancs Regt. in the old British front line trench S. of La Boisselle, about 100 yards in the rear of the great crater. The march was rendered slow and difficult by the state of the track and the fact that the whole of the Battn. had to move by one route in single file. H.Q. were not reached until after 1am - while crossing TARA Hill this column was shelled C Company having 10 N.C.O.'s and men and 1 Officer wounded, B Company 1 man killed and 1 man wounded. The state of the trench was wet and ruinous. The battn. had no connection with H.Q. or its right and left.

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8/7/16 Old British Front Line Trench

The Battalion remained in position. Shelling in the neighbourhood was continuous during the day and was particularly heavy during the night. The bulk of the enemy's shells fell in La Boisselle in front of the battalion and in the valley and slopes to the left, and along the Albert - Bapaume Road but the left of the trench was also occasionally shelled, with the result that "B" Company had nine casualties during the day and the night 8 - 9th. Some progress was made in deepening the trench and in clearing the ground of the bodies of those who had fallen six days before between the British and enemy lines. Lachrymatory shewlls were used by the enemy, but the use of goggles rendered their effect very slight. Durig the night the 13th Royal Fusiliers again mde an advance.

9/7/16.

The Battalion remained in the same position and were shelled intermittently during the day.

10pm The Battalion relieved the 8th Bttn North Staffs in front line. Relief carried out with 10 Casualties.

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10/7/16.

The Battalion in the front line as follows, 2 Coys in front line and 1 in support. C Coy in front line were sent back to the Support line as the congestion of troops was too great in the front line. Position at 10am D Coy on left of tramway line, A Coy on right, C Coy supporting D, B Coy supporting A. From 3.30pm to 7.30pm we were very heavily shelled. Caualties amounting to 2 officers and about 60 other ranks.

8.15pm. Orders were received to attack German font line at 8.45pm

8.45pm. C and B Coys left supporting lines with orders to get into the front line. As soon as the supporting line was in the line D and A Coys left the front line for the objective followed by 130 yard interval by C and D Coys. The two last Coys had not gone 200 yards when a runner from 10th Bn. Royal Fusiliers rushed up with a message that the attack was cancelled. The C.O. gave the order to retire, and the Battn retired to its original front line having penetrated to the enemys 3rd line, inflicting severe losses to the enemy and capturing 200 prisoners. Our casualties amounted to 20 officers and about 380 other ranks. Included in officer casualties were, C.O., 2nd in Command and the 4 O.C. Coys.

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Otterbourne Woods in Winter

How rudely winter breathes upon this scene

Only the bracken whose enduring tone

The artist sun with burning hand layed on,

Is witness that these woods were ever green.

Yet, as in age we draw a cheefulness

From thoughts of youth that will be and has been,

So from this wood's obscure dismantled dress

Old memories lead my dull heart's sorrowing

Till all my blood is surging with the joy of spring.

Often I hither came when the hot noon

Slumbered upon the heavy scented air

And birds were drows'd, as though the breezes were

Lethean, poisonous, that made them swoon:

On beds of hyacinth I dreamed lay

While insects round droned out a lazy tune,

In whose long tones my spirit seemed to stay.

Pythagoras, thy lore is of the wood,

And I in those charmed moments thoughtthy lore was good.

Then many visions held my dreaming eyes;

But chiefly the round table knights rode by,

With armours brave that mirrored all the sky,

To Camelot(1), where now our city lies,

Our fair white city, and her pastures green.

Thier talk is of the darkling mysteries

That should the faery lady all unseen

There in the vale below, in dim Shalotte:

And of the holy Grail and high Sir Lancelot.

Often gay peasants held their maying here

And the soft echo buzzed their rustic noise,

Or hushed its note, when sunburnt girls and boys

Touched lips at eve and found that life was dear,

Or on a feast day when the wood was still

And bells from the towered city rang out clear,

Came lonely Merlin who was wont to fill

His cup of wisdom from all creatures' talk

And in my dreams by him was my joy to walk.

But nothing marred the canvas of my dream;

Even the spirits of the place are good,

E'en when soft night broods darkly on the wood

And love sick Philomel's soft plaintings seem

Like scattered stars upon the velvet night,

Then sporting young mischiefs, tiny elves that teem

Among night-open bells, until the light,

When angels take each little mischief up

And poke him gently down into his dewy cup.

Such is the tender wood, the mysteries

That hang about its venerable shade:

An arched temple here hath Nature made,

Where the soft breeze's vesper never dies.

And, as in age we see or think we see

Peeping from ag'd and long obscured eyes

A spirit verging on futurity,

Another fresher youth's foreshadowing,

So now in winter's chill my thoughts are with the spring.

G.W.S.

The Wykehamist, February 1899.

(1)Refers to the idea that Winchester is identical with the legendary Camelot.

[marina]

The 'hot noon' stanza is the best.

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To a Seamew at Baia

Wild spirit of the north, what dost thou here

Sweeping the southern wave with thy white wings

Already in the woods the violet springs,

The almond blooms upon the headland near;

Oranges crowd the trees, and, growing lush,

Burn in their dusky groves with golden flame.

The spring comes up with rosy cheeks aflush,

And winter limps down hill, for he is lame.

But thou upon the smooth and azure sea

Flingest thy myriad flight, like northern foam

That wintrily

Springs to the rocky cliffs of thy far home.

What cry is thine upon the southern air?

The northern genius speaks in thee that knows

A beauty grappling with the ice and snows,

A song that must be rugged to be fair.

And there must be something sad and strange

Within that voice, for the dim half-lights to stay

So long upon the icebound shores where range

The hooded spectres that brook not the day.

But thy wierd cry is too vaunting a cheer

To challenge shadowy Death and all his crew,

For Craven fear

Is brushed from off thy lean, curved wings like dew.

Meseems thou art an alien here, like me.

This beauty holds us fast, but in its train

Come strange unrest and yearnings of the brain

As to a shipman in a fairy sea.

And the avenging furies are not far;

Here 'neath the rubble of the Titan world

Destroying fires still lurk, and troops pf war

Still battle the clouds with signs unfurled,

What time the electric fierce Sirocco comes

With thunder out of sullen Africa

and warning drums

Pesaging death and all the old dismay.

The fly, and safely round the Siren rock,

Fly ever northward to thy nesting place.

And if thou wantest for a breathing space,

I know a knoll where many a gleaming flock

Of seamews rest e'en now, a grassy down

Where pine-trees slope and gorse and brambles grow

Above the spires of England's oldest town.

And through an emerald vale that sleeps below

A river weaves its magic tracery,

To whom take thou this message, for there needs

A word from me

Wafted from Baia to the Hampshire Meads.

G.W.S.

Oxford magazine, March 9, 1904.

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Castello d'Ischia

Now autumn paints the mountain isle,

Her vines and chestnut-trees,

Where the Greek captain touched and passed

To sail the western sea

Here Petrarch sang, here lightly mused

Far-famed Boccaccio.

A castle on a wave-girt rock

Looms outward to the floe.

Dauntless it rises, all unmoved

By land or seaward shock.

Stands not my heart as firm to-day

As yonder fortress rock ?

Twin castles founded firm in strength

They seem to stand for ay;

Yet sorrow and the unquiet sea

Are wearing both away.

G.W.S.

Oxford Magazine, November 16, 1904.

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Rifleman _______, No. ______

The pride of conquest, and the pomp and power,

The gorgeous visions of the embattled past

Stirred not this heart, which in the night's dark hour

Before dawn rises, here hath beat it last.

But simple duty from his loved home led

His feet in untrod ways, and quiet pride

That would not see his kin dishonoured,

A blither resolve to venture the untried

And that was all. I never saw his face

Shadowed by hate: he smiled; and, as he fell,

His thoughts flew to a little humble place

In English fields, his home; and all seemed well.

G. W.S.

B.E.F., Dec. 1915.

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List of Scientific Publications

Professor G.C. Bourne and Mr. E.S. Goodrich have kindly compiled for us the following list of Geoffrey's scientific publications.

The memoirs numbered 1 to 27 are arranged in chronological order. Those numbered 28 to 38 were published in parts of a continuous series, entitled 'Studies in the Experimental Analysis of Sex', in successive numbers of the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science. They are, therefore, kept together and printed at the end of the general list, but are arranged in the order in which they appeared.

1. Actinosphaerium eichorni, a Biometrical Study in the Mass Realtions of Nucleus and Cytoplasm. Biometrika, vol ii, part iii, 1903.

2. Metamorphosis and Life History of Gnathia maxillaris. Mittheilungen aus d. Zool. Station zu Neapel, vol. xvi, 1904.

3. The Middle Ear and Columella of Birds. Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, vol. xlviii, 1904.

4. High and Low Dimorphism, with an account of certain Tanaidae of the Bay of Naples. Mittheilungen aus d. Zool. Station zu Neapal, vol. xvii, 1905.

5. Note on a Gregarine (Aggregata inachi, n. sp.) which may cause the parasitic castration of its host (Inachus dorsettensis). Mittheilungen aus d. Zool. Station zu Neapal, vol. xvii, 1905.

[marina]

Seeing his publications and poems makes me wonder what he would have gone on to achivee - always the same feeling with the memorial books, Isn;t it?

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6. Rhizocephala, 29 Monographie d. Flora des Golfes von Neapel. R. Friedlander u Sohn, Belin, 1906.

7. The fixation of the Cypris Larva of Sacculina carcini, Thompson, upon its host Carnicus maenas. Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Scinece, vol. li, 1907.

8. Sex in the Crustacea, with special reference to the Origin and Nature of Hermaphroditism. British Association Reports, p.354, 1907.

9. Preliminary account of the Habits and Structure of the Anaspididae, with remarks on some other Freshwater Crustacea from Tasmania. Proceedings of the Royal Society. B, vol. 80, 1908.

10. Mr J.T. Cunningham on the Heredity of Secondary Sexual Characters. Archiv fur Entwicklungmechanik der Organismen, 1909.

11. On the Anaspidacea, Living and Fossil. Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, vol. liii, 1909.

12. The Freshwater Crustacea of Tasmania, with remarks on their Geographical Distribution. Transactions of the Linnean Society, 2nd series, vol xi, part 4, 1909.

13. A Naturalist in Tasmania. Clarendon Press, 1909.

14. The Cabridge Natural History, Crustacea, chapters i and 111-iv (chapter ii by W.F.R. Weldon). Macmillan & Co. Ltd., 1909.

15. Sex and Immunity........British Association Reports, p.365, 1910.

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16. Primitive Animals. Cambridge University Press, 1911.

17. Some recent work on Sex. British Association Reports, p.414, 1911.

18. The Freshwater Crayfishes of Australia. Proceedings of the Zoological Society, p.144, 1912.

19. The genus Engaeus, or the Land Crayfishes of Australia. Proceedings of the Zoological Society, 1913.

20. On the effect of Castration on the Thumb of the Frog. Zoological Anzeiger, vol. xli, 1913.

21. The effect of the Reproductive Cycle on Glycogen and Fat Metabolism in Crabs. British Association Reports, p.670, 1913.

22. The Life Cycle of Moina rectirostris (in conjunction with G.H. Grosvenor). Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, vol. lviii, 1913.

23. On Sterile and Hybrid Pheasants.........Journal of Genetics, voll. iii, No. 1, 1913.

24. A Contribution to the Biology of Sex. The Eugenics Review, 1914.

25. The Life Cycle of Cladocera, with remarks on the Physiology of Growth and Reproduction in Crustacea. Proceedings of the Royal Society, B, vol. 88, 1915.

26. The Genus Lernaediscus. Journal of the Linnean Society, vol. xxii, 1915.

27. A Seventeenth Century Physician (Francesco Redi). Studies in the History of Science and Medicine. (in the press)

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Studies in the Experimental Analysis of Sex

28. Part 1. On Mendelian Theories of Sex.

29. Part 2. On the Correlation between Primary and Secondary Sexual Characters. Q.J.M.S., vol. liv, pp. 577-603, 1910.

30. Part 3. Further Observation on Parasitic Castration.

31. Part 4. On a case of Parasitic Castration in a Vertebrate. Q.J.M.S., vol. lv, pp. 225-40, 1910.

32. Part 5. On the effects of Testis-extract Injection upon Fowls. Q.J.M.S., vol. lvi, pp. 591-612, 1911.

33. Part 6. On the cause of the Fluctuations in Growth of the Fowl's Comb. Q.J.M.S., vol. lvii, pp. 45-51, 1911.

34. Part 7. Sexual Changes in the Blood and Liver of Carcinus maenas. Q.J.M.S., vol. lvii, pp. 251-278, 1911.

35. Part 8. On the effects of the Removal and Transplantation of the Gonad in the Frog (Rana fusca) [in conjunction with Dr. E.J. Schuster]. Q.J.M.S., vol lvii, pp. 449-71, 1912.

36. Part 9. On Spermatogenesis and the Formation of Giant Spermatozoa in Hybrid Pigeons. Q.J.M.S., vol. lviii, pp. 159-70, 1912.

37. Part 10. The effects of Sacculina on the Storage of Fat and Glycogen and on the Formation of Pigment by its host. Q.J.M.S., vol. lix, pp. 267-95, 1913.

38. Part 11. On the Stylops and Stylopisation (in conjunction with A.H. Hamm). Q.J.M.S., vol. lx, pp. 435-61, 1914.

[shaunhullis]

Stiletto-

After a busy summer I've returned to the site and found this wonderful thread. Thank you for all the effort you've put in to bringing Geoff Watkins Smith's words and experiences to our attention. I can now add him to my lecture on Wykehamist war poets!

Shaun

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Shaun,

I am glad that you have enjoyed Geoff's words and experiences.

Andy

[marina]

Is there a new memoir lurking somewhere, Andy?

Marina

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Hi Marina,

Yes, there are a few more of them in the offing, just need to get the time to start putting them on here.

Andy

[marina]

Did you know that moderators get an extra time allocation for that purpose?

Marina