The Scottish Military Research Group - Commemorations Project

stuartn · Joined: 13 Dec 2016 Posts: 2551

I have just come across this plaque at St Anne's Episcopal Church, Dunbar, on War Memorials Online

https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/250490/

It reads

IN MEMORIAM/LT COL H F E SMITH D.S.O./K.R.R.C./COMMANDED 165TH O.C.T.U./1939-1940/DIED AT DUNBAR 25 JUNE 1940

So I checked CWGC to obtain his forenames, and found that they have him as no known grave, but commemorated on the Brookwood Memorial, Surrey.

As he (a Lieutenant Colonel) allegedly died in his home town that strikes me as remarkable.

Does anyone know if he is actually buried at Dunbar, or elsewhere in the area, and CWGC simply don't know where his grave is?
If that theory can be proven there is a case to be put to CWGC to correct their records.

Kenneth Morrison · Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2018 8:37 am Post subject:

The Scotsman 29 June 1940 p.7
BURIED AT SEA . —The remains of Lieut.-Colonel H. F. E. Smith, D. S. O., who died earlier in the week at Dunbar, were buried at sea yesterday. A largelv attended service conducted bv the Rev. K. C. Cockerel was held in St Anne's Episcopal Church and afterwards the coffin was conveyed to the Victoria Harbour, Dunbar, and put on board a patrol vessel which proceeded some distance out to sea . Following a short service, the remains were lowered overboard and committed to the sea,

Herbert Frederick Edgar Smith, Colonel 60th Rifles, died in the Craig en Gelt Hotel in Dunbar on 25 June 1940. Age 52.
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Ken

stuartn · Joined: 13 Dec 2016 Posts: 2551

Ken,

Thanks very much for that, one mystery cleared up.

There is a memorial chapel in this church, and two other individual plaques.

Kenneth Morrison · Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2018 11:37 am Post subject:

Herbert was born in 1888 in Mitford, Norfolk.
He married Moyra V M Plunket at St George's Hanover Square, London in 1923.
He was commissioned in the 5th King's Royal Rifle Corps in August 1914 (LG 15/9/1914) and was awarded a DSO as a Captain "for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. During an enemy attack upon our trenches he found himself blocked in a tunnel with twenty men. The only entrance that was not blown up was bombed by the enemy. With great coolness and control however, he kept his men together, and at nightfall brought them through trenches held by the enemy and across a river. The escape of his party was entirely due to his initiative and resources." (LG 14/9/1917)

He was also awarded a Legion d'Honneur, Croix de Chevalier (LG 14/12/1917)
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Ken