Category: Military
Rank: Company Quartermaster Sergeant
Regiment or Ship: 8th Bn Hampshire Regiment; 15th Bn. Machine Gun Corps.
Service Number(s): 2254; 85767
Occupation: Secretary
Date of Birth: 27.04.1895
Place of Birth: Norfolk
Date of Death: 1969
Place of Death: Southampton
Address: Strathmore, 52 Wickham Avenue, Bexhill on Sea
Photos and newspaper articles
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Family Information
Parents: John W. Smith (1850-) and Florence H. Dow (1873-1952).
Siblings: Doris Beryl Mary (1898-).
In 1922 Graham married Margery H. Dale (1900-1930). No children of this union can be found but in 1945 his second wife, Gipsy Grace Dow-Smith, nee Hingeston, gave birth to a daughter, Henrietta Adney who died the same year. No further children can be found and neither can the record of the second marriage. Graham travelled a lot worldwide so it is possible he married Gipsy abroad.
First World War Experience
Graham was living in Strathmore, Ontario, Canada, in 1915, and came back to England to enlist on 11th January, 1915. He was then 19 years and 8 months old. He was 5’ 11” tall, with a chest measurement of 34½”, and weighed 136 lbs. His eyesight was 6/15 in both eyes – corrected to 6/6 in both by spectacles. His physical development was shown to fairly good.
He served firstly in the Hampshire Regiment and on 10th February 1917 was transferred to the Machine Gun Corps. Altogether Graham served for five years and 77 days and on discharge his fitness was rated as A1 and his character “Very Good”. He spent a short time in a field hospital in 1918 with eczema of the legs.
No confirmed record of any medals issued can be traced but it may be assumed that he would have received the Victory Medal and the British War Medal.