Surviving the Somme
In July we posted a blog about Corporal T Smyth, who convalesced at Hartlebury after being wounded on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. He made a lively entry in the first of the albums compiled by the VAD nurses who ran the hospital.
We were afraid he had been sent back to the front , despite being wounded three times, but to our delight one of our followers looked him up and found he survived. He had arrived in France on 29 November 1914 but after his last wound he was promoted to Sergeant and transferred to a home battalion, suitable for an injured soldier, where his job was to train other soldiers. So he was safe in Blighty. There is a photograph of him in one of the albums.
He is number 6, on the right of the group who were the winners of the boat race at the gymkhana held at nearby Wilden on 19 August 1916.
His name appears in the programme:
So perhaps he was not too badly wounded. He looks pretty fit in the photograph:
Christine Penney, Hurd Librarian
