RELATED:  The Lost Boys of World War I

AFTER war was declared in August 1914, three Albury brothers were compelled to enlist.

Leonard Kerry Smiles, 20, was the first, in August, then Ernest Pearce Smiles, 29, in October, followed by Frank Stanley Smiles, 32, in February 1915.

The boys were the sons of Thomas and Bridget Smiles, of Wilson Street, and each had attended St Patrick’s Parish School in Albury.

The weight of Thomas and Bridget’s contribution to the war, however, began to be revealed in the first obituary published in The Border Morning Mail on May 7, 1915.

The paper reported that Private Leonard Smiles, of the 2nd Australian Infantry Battallion, had died of wounds at the Dardanelles.

His mother was not at home to read the newspaper report — she had gone to Sydney to wave goodbye to Frank, who was in camp and preparing for battle.

To add to the family’s grief, Thomas Smiles received a wire on May 13 informing him that Leonard had died of wounds between April 28 and May 2. Then on May 19, he received a second wire, advising that his son had been wounded. 

“Is this later news?” Mr Smiles asked, in his reply to the Base Records Office in Melbourne, as revealed in Frank’s service records. 

Mr Smiles then received a telegram on May 23 informing him that Cairo General Hospital had confirmed the death of Leonard at Victoria College Hospital, Alexandria. 

“Second telegram should not have been sent you till confirmed from Egypt. Sincerely trust latest news correct,” it read.

Leonard was buried in the Chatby Military Cemetery at Alexandria. 

In August, a report from Ernest, also known as Pearce, was published in the Albury Banner, where his father was the sports editor. Pearce explained details of the Gallipoli campaign, which he had survived but where his brother was killed.

“We had a hot reception, the bullets floating through the air like swarms of bees, but we gave the Turks something to remember, and we will give them plenty more before this war is over,” Pearce, of the 4th Australian Pioneer Battalion, wrote.

“The casualties were heavy but the Australians that landed in that terrible hail of lead made a name for themselves that will never die.”

Wagga’s Marcia McIntyre has been looking into the story of the Smiles boys, who were first cousins of her husband Barry’s grandmother.

On reflection, Mrs McIntyre says what Pearce predicted has come true.

“It has become a legend and the Anzacs really made a name for themselves,” she says.

Pearce then went to France, where he was wounded and died on August 4. On September 1, his parents received a generic letter to inform them that he had been reported wounded. 

“It is not stated as being serious and in the absence of further reports it is to be assumed that all wounded are progressing satisfactorily,” it read.

In reality, Pearce had already died and was buried on August 7 at Puchevillers British War Cemetery. 

His death was confirmed in a letter to Bridget on December 11, 1916. 

The Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau secured a report from a chaplain at the clearing station where Pearce died. 

Interpretive curator Anne-Marie Conde works at the National Archives of Australia in Canberra, where war service records are kept.

She says letters containing generic information, such as that passed onto the Smiles regarding Pearce’s condition, were about the Melbourne Base Records Office attempting to assure families.

“It’s difficult to relate to now in the age of information we have,” Ms Conde says.

“Although the clerks did their best, in the chaotic situation of the Western Front, it’s inevitable that information would get a bit garbled.”

She says this was the reason for the Australian Red Cross setting up its bureau of enquiry. 

“Essentially the Red Cross system was set up because the AIF couldn’t cope with the volume of information required to accurately convey news,” she says. 

“Red Cross volunteers would comb their way through convalescent hospitals searching for individuals. 

“The point of making it so explicit, I think, was so the Red Cross could be absolutely certain. What most families wanted was certainty — even if the news was the worst possible news, they wanted the worst possible news if that was what it was.”

For the Smiles family, that news worsened when, on November 11, 1916, their third son, Frank, of the 19th Australian Infantry Battalion, was reported missing. He was reported as killed in action on November 14, which was later corrected as having died while a prisoner of war in German hands at Morchies, France. 

A Red Cross inquiry included the translation of a German death voucher, which noted Frank as suffering from a shrapnel wound with a fracture of his left thigh and buttock, plus frost bite to both feet. 

A report from the field detailed Private Smiles taking part in the charge at the Battle of Flers, Somme Valley. 

The Red Cross received a report from a comrade who wrote, “We took the German front line and held it.”

“Frank had his leg broken during the taking of the trench. 

“He was lying in the trench in a conscious condition when we left. 

“I saw that he was fixed up all right just before we went out. The 26th battalion relieved us. They brought stretcher bearers with them. We hope they got him out, but we have found out nothing further as to his fate.” 

In reality, he was taken prisoner by the Germans and died later, his death confirmed by a German death list dated January 1, 1917.

On November 29, 1924, Thomas Smiles was informed that Frank’s remains had been exhumed from the German cemetery at Morchies and re-interred “with every measure of care and reverence” in the Douchy Les Ayette British Cemetery, north-west of Bapaume, France.

Ms Conde says the relaying of information may seem haphazard today but that was the nature of the conflict.

“I don’t think we should belittle the system because everybody was overwhelmed,” she says.

“And there could be absolutely nothing left of someone, he could be completely obliterated, and there could be no trace of that individual. 

“It’s a stretch of the imagination for someone to cope with that reality and then to have to convey that back to a family was dreadful. 

“So I take my hat off to the military staff and Red Cross who worked so hard to convey that news back home.”

For Thomas and Bridget back in Albury, newspapers reported that they had “made greater sacrifice for the great cause than any other Australian family”, according to the Albury Banner in May 1917.

“To have supplied three single sons in defence of the Empire … was in itself a record that was equalled by very few families in Riverina.”

That is a hard claim to verify – many families supplied a number of sons but whether any other families in the district lost three during the war is not clear. However, the Smiles’ grief was compounded when, in June 1919, they lost a fourth son in a railway accident in Albury.

The body of Thomas Herbert Smiles, 44, a railway fettler, was found lying between a set of rails behind the water tower in the Albury Goods Yard. Thomas appeared to have been dragged under an engine. He was married with three children.

When his mother Bridget died in 1931, the Albury Banner declared she was “entitled to special distinction amongst Border mothers” because of the sacrifice she made for the Great War and the tragedy she endured in losing four sons in four years.

Leonard, Pearce and Frank Smiles are remembered on the memorial pillars at St Patrick’s Church and at the Albury monument.

Pearce and Frank’s names will be projected onto the Hall of Memory at the Australian War Memorial on September 30, while Leonard’s will appear on October 17, as part of the memorial’s centenary program.