Kenneth “Ken” Smith

Signalman · #2328696 · Y2 Patrol · George Cross (GC)

What this roll records

George Cross (posthumous). On the night of 10 January 1945, on the island of Ist in the Adriatic, Signalman Smith was with an LRDG patrol when saboteurs planted time-bombs in the houses they occupied. Hearing shots, he entered the wireless room and found a ticking bomb on the table; with partisans in the room and young children elsewhere in the house, he picked it up and carried it outside to save them. It exploded a few yards from the house and he was killed. His action saved the lives of many comrades, partisans and civilians. (Royal Corps of Signals, attached LRDG.)

CWGC: Signalman Kenneth Smith, service no. 2328696, Royal Corps of Signals and Long Range Desert Group. Died 10 January 1945, aged 24 (island of Ist, Adriatic; awarded the George Cross). Buried at Belgrade War Cemetery, grave 6.D.9, Serbia. Source: Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

THE GEORGE CROSS ANNOUNCED. London Gazette, Supplement 37311, page 5105, 16 October 1945: “No. 2328696 Signalman Kenneth SMITH, Royal Corps of Signals”. Service number, name and corps all match this card exactly. The entry sits in the form the Gazette used for gallantry not in the face of the enemy, which is the George Cross’s own category, and the date is nine months after his death, which fits a posthumous award. This is the roll’s only George Cross, and until now it carried no reference for where the award was announced. Source: The London Gazette.

WHERE HE CAME FROM. The cable announcing the George Cross gives his home as “Humby, near Grantham”, in Lincolnshire — the only place of origin this roll holds for him. The cable was datelined London, 1 November 1945, a fortnight after the Gazette entry recorded on this card, and reached New Zealand readers as late as 11 January 1946. Source: “Soldier’s George Cross — Carried Ticking Bomb”, Greymouth Evening Star, 11 January 1946, page 2, via Papers Past (National Library of New Zealand).

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Where this comes from

• Missing info added from the LRDG Preservation Society’s Troopers roll.
• AKA added from the LRDG Preservation Society’s Troopers roll (missing information).

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Not By Strength But By Guile