HK Smithies Harold King Smithies M Arthur Horton Smithies Henrietta Mary Please 1880/01/16 Mile End N/K. N/K. 1945/10/01 Carcinoma of the bronchus Mortlake crematorium Kathleen Margaret Frances Walsh 1926/12/26 Kenneth Charles Lester Smithies Ex Publisher's Reader, OUP KCLSA-HKS-School Old School KCLSA-HKS-Enlistment On enlistment KCLSA-HKS-and-mother With mother KCLSA-HKS-and-godchild With godchild KCLSA-father-and-baby With baby son KCLSA-child-and-father With son KCLSA-boy-and-parents With family KCLSA-boy-and-father With son in country HKSWWI/hkswwi01 Also near the blue Sea of the Caspian, some miles off Windy Corner Manzil, North Persia HKSWWI/hkswwi02 The typical ground we had to advance over before the murderous days at Kut HKSWWI/hkswwi03 Another view on the Tigris HKSWWI/hkswwi04 One of the Turkish Gunboats we sunk HKSWWI/hkswwi05 On HS 12: The River Tigris at Baghdad HKSWWI/hkswwi06 Persian Canoe, Enzeli, North Persia HKSWWI/hkswwi07 an old Arab fort on the River Tigris HKSWWI/hkswwi08 a typical view of the hill forts HKSWWI/hkswwi09 On the march thro' Northern Persia to Baku HKSWWI/hkswwi10 P Boat on River Tigris

His father died when HKS was 4. His grandfather, J Please, helped Henrietta Mary bring up him (HKS) and his 2 sisters. He had a grandmother Smithies, of whom he was very fond, who lived in London. He was expected to enter the brewery, as was the custom. He was sent to a friendly firm other than Charrington's to avoid favouritism. At the age of 16 he was in charge of a number of draymen. He found the work uncongenial. He eventually fell out with his grandfather and obtained employment with OUP. Until the 1914-1918 war he was a Publisher's Reader, working with Humphrey Milford. His mother was rather upset that he did not do the appropriate thing and take a commission but not surprisingly, rapidly attained the rank of Company Sargeant-Major. When he volunteered for service with one of the battallions of the Worcestershire Regiment, he had to falsify his age because he was at the material time too old. He was severely wounded in the Dardanelles campaign and was the sole survivor of the Officers' and Sergeants' Mess of the Regiment as it was in 1915. After he was demobilized he found that his job with OUP was filled by a lady Oxford graduate, and he was put on the "outside staff". He found this uncongenial and apart from sporadic work as a somewhat high-class jobbing gardener, never worked again. He worked at Buckingham Palace, whence he obtained a child's rubber ball (spiked) which he gave to KCLS. He was, despite not going to University, very well educated. He had beautiful handwriting and was an excellent chess player.

Before the war he championed Con Reed, another worker at the OUP, who gave expensive Christmas presents to the impoverished Smithies family. She lived at 112 Hewitt Avenue, Wood Green, London N22.

Shortly before his death, he wrote this last letter to his son.