Birth

Enlistment Information

Military Service

Embarkation Information

Military Awards

Death

Biographical Notes

Thomas Bruce Smith (or Bruce as he liked to be called) was born on Waratah Station in the McKenzie Pass on 3 September 1895 to Alexander Searle Smith and his wife Louisa (née Ferens). Bruce’s father was managing that part of the Smith family farm at the time. Later Bruce's father farmed the neighbouring farm Manahuni for a few years until the family moved to Craigieburn Farm (on the left hand side of the main road past Kimbell, just before Burkes Pass) in the early 1900s.

When Bruce enlisted in April 1916 he had been working on the Ross family farm at Three Springs Farm at Kimbell with his best friend Hugh Ross. They both signed up together on the same day. Around early January 1918 Bruce was promoted to sergeant and was one of a very small group of New Zealanders who joined Dunsterforce. The force was made up of less than 350 Commonwealth officers and NCOs that was sent into Persia (northern Iran) and the southern Caucasus to organise local units to replace the Tsarist Russian forces that had withdrawn from the area after the Russian Revolution. An initial force made a long march toward Urmia where they helped hold off the pursuit of Assyrians fleeing the town that had recently been captured by the Ottomans. Later, in Ford vans and armoured cars Dunsterforce travelled 350 km from Hamadan to Baku where they fought in late August and early September 1918 before retreating. Though the campaign was ultimately unsuccessful in creating a military force to hold parts of the Caucasus, it did manage to deny access to Iran for the Central Powers and key resources to the Ottomans and their German allies. In addition they won much prestige by carrying out famine relief and organisation of supplies. Bruce was listed as seriously ill at Hamadan Hospital (which is now in Iraq ) with tuberculosis about September 1918. Because of his initials being "TB "Smith, it became a running joke with his army friends. He was in and out of hospital for a couple of months until about November 1918, getting back to England around January 1919. In England he spent time at Brocton, the camp of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade, which was situated on the northern edge of Cannock Chase, County Staffordshire. He was again reported sick with malaria in May 1919, spending time at Walton-on-Thames Hospital , Surrey, England. In June 1919 Bruce set sail to return to New Zealand on the ship Marama. After his return home Bruce married Jessie Leah Ross, the sister of his best friend Hugh Ross, on 27 June 1921. They had four children and farmed the old Three Springs farm, living in the original homestead until the late 1940s when it was sold to returned servicemen from World War Two. The family moved to Fairlie where Bruce worked as a butcher, then latter for the Canterbury Farmers in their machinery department. Bruce and Jessie retired to Kimbell. Jessie passed away in June 1966, and Bruce died in September 1981. They are both buried in the cemetery at Fairlie.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [13 May 2019]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [12 May 2019]; Fairlie Cemetery headstone transcription [15 May 2019]; Biography submitted by G Pullar via SCRoll web submission, 4 August 2020

External Links

Related Documents

No documents available.

Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, SC branch NZSG; Tony Rippin, South Canterbury Museum

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.