227377 Pte. Norman Smith British Army 1st/7th Btn. West Yorkshire Regiment from:Albion Street, Leeds, West Yorkshire (d.26th May 1915) Sadly, I know very little about Norman Smith. His mother was Mary Elizabeth Crabtree, who was born in Atherstone, Warwickshire in 1869. His father was Arthur Lawrence Smith, who was born in Batley, Yorkshire in 1867. His parents met and married while his mother was a nurse at Menston, Yorkshire. His father worked as a porter. He had a sister, Lucy, who was born in 1893. In the 1911 Census his father was church caretaker at Trinity Church House, Hillary Place, Leeds, Yorkshire. (This is now a nightclub, apparently.)
On the date of Norman's death, his parents had moved to Albion Street, Leeds. Norman Smith joined up in 1914 at Leeds. I do not have any photographs of him, I wish I had, but do have one of his mother Mary Elizabeth Crabtree - her father William Henry Crabtree was my great great grandfather. Mary Elizabeth Crabtree was born to William Henry and Annie Watts. She had a sister, Ellen Crabtree, who married Thomas Bowcott. No one seems to know about Norman Smith, one of the sadly forgotten, but as his great great niece I wish him to be remembered.
Norman was 19 when he was killed - he is buried in Rue-Petillon Military Cemetery, Fleurbaix.
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