Notes
The Bradford Grammar School website (see References) states: 'Cecil Ramsden Smith was the youngest child of Joshua Smith by his second marriage to Sarah Maria Ramsden. Joshua Smith was a coal merchant whose business and residence were both in Great Horton, Bradford. His eldest son by his first marriage, Edward, worked for him in the coal business. He then had three daughters before Cecil was born on 9th June 1890. Cecil went to Bradford Grammar School when he was ten in September 1900, and he left shortly after his sixteenth birthday. He was on the Modern side of the School, and although his performance in different subjects fluctuated, he was competent in Maths, Physics, Chemistry and History. After leaving school he put his knowledge of Chemistry to work by taking employment as a ‘Technical Chemist’ at a dyeworks. He was a member of his local Rugby Union club, Horton (which later became Bradford R.F.C.). He became a student at Leeds University, and in
October 1915 he joined the University Officer Training Corps. Being a university man and with a few weeks military training, he could now be classed as a ‘temporary gentleman’. On 4th December Smith, who now styled himself ‘C. Ramsden Smith’, applied for an officer’s commission, specifying that he wished to serve in the infantry. On Christmas Eve he was ordered to report to the 13th Reserve Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment at Tynemouth, near Newcastle, two weeks later. After six months’ training he was transferred to the Royal Engineers on 3rd June 1916, and a day later he was sent to France.
The reason for his hasty despatch overseas was his knowledge of Chemistry. Since the Germans made the first use of chemical weapons in April 1915, the Royal Engineers had formed special companies of such men to respond in kind. Smith was appointed to Special Company ‘M’. Initially the duties of the Special Companies were to position cylinders of
poison gas in the front line to support attacks. ‘M’ Company escaped involvement in the Battle of the Somme as they were employed further north. On 1st March 1917 they released gas at Vimy Ridge in support of a Canadian raid, losing nine killed and thirty gassed and wounded when German fire shattered the tubes leading from the cylinders. In March Smith went on a course to train in the use of the Livens Projector, a simple gas mortar, following
which in April the Company supported the Canadian assault on Vimy Ridge by deluging the German positions with a huge cloud of gas. During May they were posted to the front held by the 49th West Riding Division near Neuve Chapelle where planned attempts to harass the Germans by firing hundreds of the projectors had to be cancelled owing to the contrary wind direction. In June ‘M’ Company returned to the use of cylinder gas, and by the night of 11th June they had positioned more than 800 cylinders in the front line near Armentieres ready for discharge. At 9.25 pm that night the Germans mounted a raid on the British line, and ‘M’ Company’s personnel took part in driving them off. Smith was killed in this action. His death was entered in the Company War Diary for 11th June, and the telegram to his family also states he was killed in action on that date. However, for reasons which are unclear, his death was officially recorded as having occurred on 12th June.
While he was in training as an officer in early 1916, Smith married Gwladys May Edwards. Like Cecil, she had been born in Great Horton, but as the daughter of a Wesleyan Minister she had long since moved away (in 1911 she lived with her parents in Bournemouth). She was four years older than Cecil. How they met is unknown. After their marriage she lived with her husband’s parents, on the west coast near Lancaster, before she performed war service in France. There were no children, and what happened to her after the War is unknown.'