Lance Corporal Thomas Smart

Lance Corporal Thomas Smart, 27th Battalion ( 4th Tyneside Irish ), Northumberland Fusiliers. He was killed in France on 25th April 1917, aged 38, during the Battle of Arras. He had been born in Melrose to Thomas and Agnes Smart of Huntly House, Gattonside and was the brother of George Smart ( see below). He was married to Mary Smart of Dingleton, Melrose and is buried in Brown’s Copse Cemetery, Roeux, Arras, France. He had served his apprenticeship as a plumber in Melrose before enlisting in the K.O.S.B. in January 1900 although he was discharged later that year. On the day he fell the Battalion was preparing for an attack on the German strongpoints in the village of Roeux and to this end were consolidating “Cam” and “Cawdor” trenches. This was done under heavy shellfire and 3 men were killed and 6 wounded. It is probable that Thomas Smart was one of the fatalities. The photograph shows British troops and a tank in a captured village near Arras.