SMART, Thomas William
(Service number 40137)
| First Rank | Private | Last Rank |
|---|
Birth
| Date | 21 August 1885 | Place of Birth | Burkes Pass, South Canterbury |
|---|
Enlistment Information
| Date | 16 October 1916 | Age | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Address at Enlistment | |||
| Occupation | |||
| Previous Military Experience | |||
| Marital Status | Married | ||
| Next of Kin | |||
Military Service
| Served with | NZ Armed Forces | Served in | Army |
|---|
Embarkation Information
| Body on Embarkation | 24th Reinforcements | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Unit, Squadron, or Ship | Specialist Coy, Machine-Gun section | ||
| Date | 26 April 1917 | ||
| Transport | HMNZT 82 Pakeha | ||
| Embarked From | Wellington, NZ | Destination | Plymouth, England |
| Other Units Served With | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Last Unit Served With | |||
Military Awards
| Campaigns | Western Europe, 1917-1918 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Service Medals | |||
Award Circumstances and Date
No information
Prisoner of War Information
| Date of Capture | |
|---|---|
| Where Captured and by Whom | |
| Actions Prior to Capture | |
| PoW Serial Number | |
| PoW Camps | |
| Days Interned | |
| Liberation Date |
Death
| Date | Age | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Place of Death | |||
| Cause | Repercussion of mustard gassing suffered during military service | ||
| Memorial or Cemetery | Te-Henui Cemetery, Waitara | ||
| New Zealand Memorials | On Memorial wall, Timaru | ||
Biographical Notes
Thomas, born in 1885, was the eldest son of Mary and Elijah Smart of Burkes Pass. Thomas attended Burkes Pass Primary School and worked on stations in the Mackenzie before joining NZ Railways as a porter. He married Dulcie Pennington (1893-1950) on 30 September 1915 at Waitara. The couple went on to have thre children: Victor Thomas Roy (b.1916), Charles (b.1920), and Maxwell George (b.1922).
Smart enlisted with the army on 16 October 1916, joining the second draft of the 24th Reinforcements, Specialist Machine Gun section. He emarked from New Zealand on HMNZT 82 'Pakeha' on 26 April 1917, bound for Plymouth England. While serving in France, Thomas was wounded (gassed) on 23 August 1918. After treatment he was subsequently invalided back to New Zealand on the 'Oxfordshire'.
Thomas died on 30 January 1924, as a result of his war injuries, and is buried at Te-Henui Cemetery, Waitara. He was survived by his wife and three children.
Sources
SCRoll submission by M Willets, 24 August 2016
External Links
Related Documents
Researched and Written by
Tony Rippin, South Canterbury Museum
Currently Assigned to
Not assigned.
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License unless otherwise stated.
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