Norman Taylor SMITH (1895–1917)
Norman Taylor Smith was born in Aberdeen on 6 April 1895. He was the son of Robert Smith (born in Tarves near Aberdeen on 17 January 1867) and Grace Ann Sutherland Taylor (born in St Nicholas’s parish, Aberdeen on 28 October.1868).
Norman's parents were married in c.1889 and had two children, both born in Aberdeen (at Dee Village Road in St Nicholas’s parish):
- Robert Taylor Smith (born on 22 March 1892)
- Norman Taylor Smith (born on 6 April.1895).
The family moved down to Oxford in the late 1890s and in 1899 Norman’s father Robert started work as Foreman of W. Lucy & Co., a job he was to hold for forty years.
At the time of the 1901 census Norman (5) was living at 26 Christ Church New Buildings, St Thomas, Oxford with his mother Grace (32), who was described as the wife of an iron contractor, and his brother Robert (9). His father was not at home on census night.
Norman attended the Central Boys' School in Gloucester Green.
In about 1909 Norman’s parents moved to 55 Kingston Road in St Margaret’s parish, and both their sons went to work for Lucy’s.
The 1911 census shows Norman (15), described as an engineer’s pattern maker, living at 55 Kingston Road with his father Robert (44), described as a foundry engineer, and his mother Grace (42). Norman’s brother was not at home.
In the First World War Norman Taylor Smith served as a Serjeant in the 1st/4th Battalion of the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (Service No. 1359). He was killed in action in France at the age of 21 on 23 July 1916, and is buried in the Pozières British Cemetery, Ovillers-La Boiselle (I.C.31): his parents paid for the words SO LOVED, SO MOURNED to be added to his headstone. He is remembered here on the war memorial outside St Margaret’s Church in north Oxford, and on the war memorial of the Central Boys' School.
Norman’s older brother, Robert Taylor Smith joined the Royal Flying Corps as an Engineer/Blacksmith and was part of a mobile unit of blacksmiths who travelled around the battlefields repairing crashed aircraft and getting then back into action. He survived the war.
After the War
Norman’s parents
- At the time of the 1921 census Robert Smith (54), described as an engineer/machine shop foreman at Lucy's in Walton Well Road, was living at 55 Kingston Road with his wife Grace (52) and their son Robert (29), who was a lathe hand at Lucy's. By the time of the 1939 Register he had retired. He died at the age of 85 near the end of that year. His widow Grace Ann Sutherland Taylor Smith remained at 55 Kingston Road and died there at the age of 85 in 1954,.
Norman’s brother
- Robert Taylor Smith was living at 36 Juxon Street in Jericho, Oxford with his wife Mary at the time of the 1939 Register and described himself as a millwright machine tool fitter at Lucy's. Soon afterwards he went to work at the New Bodleian Library as the Head Engineer, where he looked after the heating systems and the conveyor belts that went between the Old and New Libraries. He retired in 1960, and was then living in Southmoor Road. He died in Oxford in 1976.
See also
- CWGC: SMITH, N.
- Postcard: Kingston Road in 1906 (No. 55, where Norman lived, was in the middle of the west side)
- Wikipedia: Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
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Book about the men on this war memorial still on sale: 47 Men of North Oxford