John Quinton Smith

The Battalion arrived at Boulogne as Lines of Communication troops on the 14/08/1914. On the 22/08/1914 they were part of the 19th Infantry Brigade which was not allocated to a Division. From the 25/11/1915 the Battalion were part of the 98th Brigade, 33rd Division. John was Killed in Action at Longueval, Somme during the Battles of the Somme, 1st July - 18th November 1916: the Somme. A Franco-British offensive that was undertaken after Allied strategic conferences in late 1915, but which changed its nature due to the German attack against the French in the epic Battle of Verdun, which lasted from late February to November. Huge British losses on the first day and a series of fiercely contested steps that became attritional in nature. For all armies on the Western Front it was becoming what the Germans would call "materialschlacht" : a war not of morale, will or even manpower, but of sheer industrial material might. The 15th September 1916 saw the first-ever use of tanks in the step known as the Battle of Flers-Courcelette. The British army in France is now approaching its maximum strength in numbers but is still developing in terms of tactics, technology, command and control. He is also remembered on the Gartsherrie Church Roll of Honour (see photos), in the St. Augustine's Parish (book) Roll of Honour and at the Family Plot in Old Monkland Cemetery (see photos x 2). See photos for John's Medal Index Card, his Army Register of Soldiers Effects, his Service Medal and Award Rolls, his CWGC Grave Registration, his name on the Thiepval Memorial, John's Pension Records x 2 and the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Cap Badge.