Signalman Kenneth Smith GC

George Cross

The George Cross is the highest civil decoration of the United Kingdom, and also holds, or has held, that status in many of the other countries of the Commonwealth of Nations...

 (7 December 1920 – 10 January 1945) of the Royal Corps of Signals

Royal Corps of Signals

The Royal Corps of Signals is one of the combat support arms of the British Army...

, was posthumously awarded the George Cross

George Cross

The George Cross is the highest civil decoration of the United Kingdom, and also holds, or has held, that status in many of the other countries of the Commonwealth of Nations...

 for the bravery he showed on the night of 10 January 1945 on the island of Ist

Ist (island)

Ist is a small island off the Dalmatian coast of Croatia. The closest city to Ist is Zadar. The island has an area of 9.65 km2. Ist is located between the islands of Škarda and Molat....

 in the Adriatic when attached to the Long Range Desert Group

Long Range Desert Group

The Long Range Desert Group was a reconnaissance and raiding unit of the British Army during the Second World War. The commander of the German Afrika Corps, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, admitted that the LRDG "caused us more damage than any other British unit of equal strength".Originally called...

.

Life

Smith was born in Market Rasen

Market Rasen

Market Rasen is a town and civil parish within the West Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. It lies on the River Rase northeast of Lincoln, east of Gainsborough and southwest of Grimsby. According to the 2001 census, it has a population of 3,200....

, Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...

 on 7 December 1920, the eldest son of Bertie and Alice Jane Smith of Louth

Louth, Lincolnshire

Louth is a market town and civil parish within the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England.-Geography:Known as the "capital of the Lincolnshire Wolds", it is situated where the ancient trackway Barton Street crosses the River Lud, and has a total resident population of 15,930.The Greenwich...

. He joined the Royal Signals, British Army

British Army

The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

 on 23 January 1939 and served in the Second World War.

At the time of his death he was attached to the signals section of a Long Range Desert Group patrol based in the Adriatic islands. Sabotage was rife on the islands, and in dealing with a time-bomb placed on Ist to disrupt the activities of his patrol, which also threatened a number of civilians, Smith was killed.

The citation published in a supplement to the London Gazette

London Gazette

The London Gazette is one of the official journals of record of the British government, and the most important among such official journals in the United Kingdom, in which certain statutory notices are required to be published...

on 19 October 1945 stated in the barest terms:
However The Times

The Times

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

the following day carried the original recommendation for the medal in full:

Memorials and medal

Smith is now buried in the Belgrade War Cemetery. His medals were presented to his mother as she was his next of kin. She in turned passed the GC to her second son, and campaign medals to her third son, Michael. The GC seems to have been sold only a few months later. Michael was just three at the time of Smith's death, so never knew his older brother. His interest was reawakened when he discovered that the local council on Ist was planning to erect a memorial. Michael and other family members subsequently visited Ist in 1988 where they met some of Smith's friends, and a local woman who had been in the house on the night of his death. They visited the site of his first grave, and later visited the cemetery in Belgrade where his body was later moved. Michael and his son Jamie then tried to track down the GC; they eventually discovered that it was in the hands of the medal and coin dealers, Spink, and was shortly to be offered for auction. The medal was also being sought by the trustees of the Royal Signals Museum in Blandford, who purchased the medal at auction, Michael was also present when the medal was transferred to them.