Those remembered (S-Z)
Ernest Smith attended the Sunday School at William Street Wesleyan Chapel, winning prizes in 1892 and 1895. He served as a Corporal in the 5th Battalion Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry. Ernest died on 25 September 1915 and is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium. The Menin Gate bears the names of more than 54,000 officers and men whose graves are not known.
Inscription on the Menin Gate memorial
Frederick Charles Smith was the son of John and Ann Smith of St Clements and later Cowley Road. He was baptised in William Street Wesleyan Chapel on 1 March 1887. As a boy he attended the William Street Wesleyan Sunday School, being awarded a Sunday School prize on five occasions. He and his wife taught in the Sunday School at Wesley Hall before moving to live in Reading.
After enlisting in Reading, Frederick Smith served as a private in the East Surrey Regiment and later the 1st Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. He was killed in action at Ypres in Belgium on 18 July 1917. He was buried in Bard Cottage Cemetery, Ieper (Ypres), West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.
Sidney Charles Smith was the butler and manciple at Oriel College, Oxford. He was a member of the choir at Wesley Hall.
Sidney Smith became a Lance Corporal in the 6th Battalion Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry. He was killed in action by a shell in France on 19 February 1917 at the age of 40, on his first night in the trenches. He was buried at the AIF Burial Ground, Flers, Somme.
Thomas W Smith was a younger brother of Frederick Smith. He attended the Sunday School at William Street Wesleyan Chapel and Wesley Hall, being awarded Sunday School prizes in 1902 and 1904. The Oxford Wesleyan Methodist Circuit Magazine of August 1917 recorded that he had died some weeks before.
Unfortunately it has not been possible as yet to verify which one, if any, of the many men called Thomas Smith who died in 1917 and have a grave or memorial maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, had this connection with Wesley Hall.
