Photo: Brian Chandler

Robert Smailes

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:-

Robert Smailes was born on 8th December 1891 in the Northumberland village of Craster. His parents were fisherman Robert and Jane (nee Robson) Smailes, who already had four children, Agnes born in 1878, Elizabeth, Mary and Luke Robson, living with them in The Square. By 1901 only Robert and Luke 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.

On 23rd June 1912 Robert arrived in Canada, having sailed from Liverpool on the SS Tunisian. He was making for Toronto and seeking work as a carter, a job he had previously held for four years. He was followed two months later by his older brother Luke. 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 13th August 1915 Robert and John William entered the Toronto Recruiting Office and enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Robert became Private 172001 attached to the 83rd Battalion which under the command of Lt.-Col. Pellatt left Halifax on 1st May 1916 on the SS Olympic, arriving in Liverpool a week later and a posting to Shorncliffe, Kent.

Providing reinforcements to the Canadian Corps, Robert was transferred firstly to 36th and then the 86th, before on 3rd September being drafted to Eaton’s Motor Machine Gun Battery in France as part of the 3rd Canadian Division. Joining them as they moved to billets in Albert, the Battery took up gun positions around Courcelette where they assisted an infantry attack. Moving on to Contay on 25th September 1916 they took up their gun positions where at 2pm Private Smailes was wounded in the abdomen whilst bringing up the ammunition. His wounds were dressed by Corporal Clark before being moved to the dressing station.

Robert Smailes died from his wounds on 7th October 1916 in South Midland Casualty Clearing Station, Warloy.

Robert 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