In Mill Switch British Cemetery, Tilloy-lez-Cambrai, France is the Commonwealth War Grave of 192339 Corporal John William Smailes, serving with the 42nd Battalion Canadian Infantry who died 30/09/1918.
The son of John A. and Jane Smailes, of North Craster, Lisbury, (sic) Northumberland, England.
Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-
Born in North Craster on 2nd October 1888 to local fisherman John Archbold Smailes and his wife Jane (nee Renton) John William was the third of their four children. The oldest was Robert born in 1883, then came Mary, John William and, after two who died in infancy, James, born in 1897. Father John Archbold, who died in 1909, was the younger brother of Robert Smailes, father of Luke and Robert. All the boys attended school in Dunstan.
By 1911 John Willie was an inshore fisherman and part owner of a coble with his brother Robert, but on 4th April 1913 both John and Robert, along with friend and fellow fisherman Martin Archbold, boarded the SS Corsican, ship number 104917, bound for Canada. John Willie joined his cousins, Robert and Luke, living and working as a milkman for the Borden Dairy in Toronto, and on 13th August 1915 he and his cousin Robert enlisted in the CEF in Toronto.
John, having previously been part of the 48th Highlanders, a part-time militia regiment, became Private 192339 in ‘A’ Company, 92nd (48th Highlanders) Battalion. After nine months training the Battalion arrived in Liverpool on 29th May 1916 aboard the SS Empress of Britain, ship number 120940, and made their way by foot and train to billets at the camp at Shorncliffe, Kent. Having made out his paybook will in favour of his widowed mother, a week later John was posted to the 42nd Battalion, joining them four weeks later in billets near Steenvoorde prior to moving to the Somme.
In February 1917 John Willie was appointed Lance Corporal and two months later on 9th April he was wounded in the chest during the attack on Vimy Ridge. Initially treated at hospital in Boulogne he was invalided to England and admitted to hospital in Sheffield where he spent 126 days. A note in his medical records states a bullet ploughed across his chest wall in front of his heart fracturing a rib. His wound took a long time to heal and he spent another month in convalescence at Epsom before being discharged to duty, which he spent with 20th Reserve Battalion at Bramshott, Hampshire.
Returning to the 42nd Battalion in France in August John was appointed Corporal to replace one who was wounded. During September the Battalion was part of the attack on the Hindenburg Line and on 30th September 1918 Corporal Smailes was killed in action during the attack on the Canal du Nord.
John William Smailes is remembered in Craster on C61.02 and C61.04 and in Embleton on E27.01.
In Canada he is remembered on their Virtual War Memorial, in the National Memorial Album of Canadian Heroes, published 1919 and on the Borden Dairy Company War Memorial in Oshawa Memorial Park, Ontario.
