Ian Scott has submitted the following:
No. 19832, SMART, Pte Andrew, 9th (Service) battalion Yorkshire Regiment ('Green Howards'), died of wounds on 5th July 1916 at No. 36 Casualty Clearing Station, aged 25, and is buried in Heilly Station Cemetery, Mericourt-l'Abbé.
Andrew Smart was the second of the eight sons of Thomas Smart, miller, and his wife Jane Ann Nesbit, of Whitsun View, Wooler, Northumberland, and was born c 1891 at Wooler. In 1911 he was working as a labourer, but he was a plasterer working for Thos. Smart & Sons when he enlisted in 1914.
The 9th Battalion Yorkshire Regiment was under the orders of the 69th Brigade, 23rd Division, and landed at Boulogne on 26th August 1915. The Berwick Advertiser (21/07/1916 p 6) reporting Andrew Smart's death stated that he had fought at Loos in 1915, although the 23rd Division was not involved in the battle and was at Bois Grenier at that time. In February 1916 he was badly wounded by shrapnel in the thigh, and spent eight weeks in hospital first in Boulogne and then in Hardelot, before rejoining his battalion, where he transferred to the machine gun section. During the Battle of Albert (1st-13th July 1916) the 23rd Division was part of Sir William Pulteney's III Corps.
The 69th Brigade and the 9th battalion were not involved in the opening attack of the Somme offensive. On evening of 2nd July the battalion moved forward to bivouacs just outside Albert, and on 3rd July they marched through Albert into the trenches. On 4th July the 9th battalion and the 11th West Yorkshires made bombing attacks against German positions but progress was slow. The objective was the Horseshoe Trench between La Boiselle and Contalmaison. The attacks were to continue until the Brigade was relieved on 6th July. It seems most probable that it was during the attack on 4th July that Andrew Smart was fatally wounded.
He had two brothers: Thomas Stanley (ASC) and William (19th Northumberland Fusiliers) who served in the army. Andrew Smart was cousin to Thomas SMART (No. 14016, 11th Battalion Essex Regiment, died 6th October 1915).
Andrew Smart is remembered in Wooler on W68.01, W68.02 and W68.03 and in the Alnwick Gazette Almanack page 68.
