1st Battalion Leicestershire Regiment
Herbert Stoney Smith was born in 1868 in Hampstead.
A career soldier, Smith went to France and Flanders in 1914 where he took part in the desperate action at Rue du Bois, Armentieres from 22 to 25 October of that year. Two months later he was wounded and invalided home. On 1 June 1915 he returned to the Western Front to take command of his battalion, and shortly after was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for gallant services in the field. On 1 July he was gazetted Lieutenant Colonel.
Lieutenant Colonel Herbert Stoney Smith was fatally wounded by a sniper’s bullet on 22 October 1915 whilst inspecting the battalion trench lines; he was 47 years of age.
He is buried in Poperinghe New Military Cemetery and left a wife and two children back at his home in Leckhampton Road, Cheltenham.