Before ‘Saving Private Ryan’ there was ’Saving Private Smith’
There’s a story behind the name that isn’t there, a sixth brother, Wilfred, and a century after the First World War, an historian has dug out the archives.
Wilfred Smith’s survival is a story of sacrifice amid a war that demanded so much of it from virtually every family in Britain.
Because long before the fictional tale of Saving Private Ryan, there was the real-life story of saving Private Smith.
The people of Barnard Castle have long known the story of the Smith brothers and that Wilfred, or Willie as he was known, survived.
But how that happened was largely unknown until local historian Peter Wise searched the recently digitised archives of the local newspaper, the Teesdale Mercury. In a minuscule item buried at the bottom of a long grey column came the answer: Queen Mary, wife of King George V, heard about the sacrifice of the brothers and intervened to send Willie home.
Wilfred was the youngest son of a chimney sweep who scraped by in the slums of Barnard Castle, a market town in northern England. He didn’t want to go to war, but did when his country called. A photo taken at the time showed four of the brothers posing in their uniforms.
The image would remain on Margaret’s mantel throughout the war.
Robert 22, died first, in September 1916. George Henry, 26, died less than two months later.
Frederick, 21, died in July 1917, while the eldest, 37-year-old John William Stout — who had their mother’s maiden name — died in October 1917. The fifth son, Alfred, died in July 1918.
Margaret’s grief was apparently more than the vicar’s wife, Sarah Elizabeth Bircham, could bear. She wrote to Queen Mary about the deaths of Margaret’s five sons and how she had a sixth son still at war.
The Teesdale Mercury reported what happened next, printing the reply of the queen’s secretary, Edward Wallington.
“I am commanded by the Queen to thank you for your letter of the 16th instant, and to request you to be good enough to convey to Mr and Mrs Smith of Bridgegate, Barnard Castle, an expression of Her Majesty’s deep sympathy with them in the sad losses they have sustained by the death of their five sons.
“The Queen has caused Mr and Mrs Smith’s request concerning their youngest son to be forwarded for consideration of the War Office authorities.”
So Wilfred went home to Barnard Castle. He suffered the lingering respiratory effects of a mustard gas attack and reports suggested he was temporarily blinded. But once home, he worked as a chimney sweep and a stone mason.
At the Bowes Museum, a memorial was erected to residents who fell in the Great War, including Wilfred’s brothers. His mother laid the first wreath at its dedication in 1923. Wilfred was at her side.
His daughter Dianne Nelson, now 70, said her reserved father never talked about his experiences in the war. The family had heard about the queen and the letter, but it was simply a hazy oral tradition.
Wilfred lived until 1972, when he died at age 74.
