L.R. Smailes

Photo: Brian Chandler

Borden Dairy Company War Memorial, Oshawa, Ontario

In Embleton (Spitalford) Cemetery is a family headstone which reads:

In Loving Memory
of
Elizabeth Gillander
daughter of
Robert & Jane Smailes,
who died June 9, 1907
aged 26 years.
Also of John their son,
who died Jan. 22, 1879,
aged 2 years.
Robert their son, died from
wounds received in France,
Oct. 7 1916, aged 25 years.
Luke R, their son, died from
wounds received in France,
June 10, 1917, aged 29 years.
Their duty done.
The above Jane Smailes,
died at Craster Aug. 27 1929,
aged 75 years.
The above Robert Smailes
died at Craster May 7, 1930,
aged 76 years.
Thy will be done.

Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-

Luke Robson Smailes was born on 12th September 1887 in the Northumberland village of Craster. His parents were fisherman Robert and Jane (nee Robson) Smailes, who already had three daughters, Agnes born in 1878, Elizabeth and Mary, living with them in The Square. Their younger son Robert was born in 1891.

By 1901 only the two boys were still living at home, which was now at 18 South Craster, but by the time of the next census Mary was no longer working at the Vicarage and had returned home to live with her parents. Both Luke and Robert were working as drivers at the local quarry.

In June 1912 Robert sailed for Canada, followed two months later by Luke, who sailed from Liverpool on 30th August, making for Oakville on the outskirts of Toronto. The two boys found lodgings with Mrs McClelland on Marchmont Road, Toronto and along with their cousin John William, who arrived in Canada in April 1913 found work as milkmen at the Borden Dairy.

On 8th February 1916 red haired, tattooed Luke enlisted as Private 66964 with the 166th Battalion Canadian Infantry, naming his mother in Craster as his next of kin. Two weeks after his brother Robert died from wounds received in France, Luke sailed on the SS Caneronian with his battalion, arriving in Liverpool on 28th October and a posting to East Sandling, Kent. In January 1917 the 166th was absorbed into the 12th Reserve Battalion at Shorncliffe, and four months later having made out a will in favour of his mother Private Smailes was posted to the 75th Battalion in France joining then on 28th April at Chateau de la Haie.

From the end of May until 6th June the Battalion trained in the Berthonval Wood area of the Souchez Valley, but on the night of 8th/9th June 1917 they were part of an operation to attack enemy trenches near the Lens-Arras Road. This was a very successful attack, but very costly in the number of casualties. One of wounded was Private Luke Robert Smailes, who was admitted to 7 Casualty Clearing Station with a gunshot wound to his head. He was transferred to 7 General Hospital at St. Omer where he died from his wounds on 10th June 1917.

Luke Robson Smailes is remembered in Craster on C61.02 and C61.04, in Embleton on E27.01 and in the Alnwick Gazette Almanack 1918

In Canada he is remembered on their Virtual War Memorial and in their Book of Remembrance, in the National Memorial Album of Canadian Heroes, published 1919 and on the Borden Dairy Company War Memorial in Oshawa Memorial Park, Ontario.

Canadian Book of Remembrance
Canadian Virtual Memorial
The CWGC entry for Private Smailes