Additions will be checked before being published on the website and where possible will be forwarded to the person who submitted the original entries. Your contact details will not be forwarded, but they can send a reply via this messaging system.
please scroll down to send a message
2nd Lt. Wilfred Alan Smith
British Army 3rd Btn. Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
from:East Riding, Yorkshire
From: 2nd Lieut. W A Smith, No 10 Platoon, C Company,2nd K.O.Y.L.I. 2nd July 1916 To Adjutant 2nd K.O.Y.L.I. "I have the honour to bring before your notice the splendid and heroic work carried out by Corporal Dobson of my platoon in action on July 1 1916. Corporal Dobson organised attacking by bombing the German strong points on our left and if it had not been for the splendid and heroic work done by this gallant N.C.O. we should probably have been surrounded. He went forward in shirt sleeves and was throwing bombs from 8.30 a.m. until he was unfortunately hit in the back about 5.00 p.m. that evening by a German bomb. He died a few minutes after being hit. His loss will be felt keenly by all the platoon. He was a capable N.C.O. always cheerful and fearless and always had a cheery word of encouragement for the recruits. >This being my report, I have the honour to be, your obedient servant, W.A Smith 2/Lt. No 10 Platoon 2nd K.O.Y.L.I."
Wilfred Alan Smith was my grandfather. He survived the war, at the cost of his sight - he was war blinded before its end - and died peacefully in 1960.
Corporal Dobson was George Jones Dobson. He was twenty-eight years old when he died and is buried, on the Somme, at Blighty Valley Cemetery near where he fell.
