Euan Lucie-Smith

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Euan Lucie-Smith

Euan Lucie-Smith (14 December 1889 – 25 April 1915) was a British Army second lieutenant of World War I, of mixed British and Afro-Caribbean descent. He was one of the first mixed-heritage infantry officers in a regular British Army regiment,[lower-alpha 1] and the first killed in World War I.

Early life

Lucie-Smith was born on 14 December 1889 at Cross Roads, St Andrew, Jamaica, the younger son of Catherine, the granddaughter[lower-alpha 2] of Samuel Constantine Burke, a lawyer and politician referred to as "coloured"; and John Barkley Lucie-Smith,[lower-alpha 3] a white colonial civil servant who was Postmaster of Jamaica.[2][3][4] His grandfather was John Lucie-Smith, Chief Justice of Jamaica, and an uncle was Alfred Lucie-Smith;[lower-alpha 4][5] the art critic Edward Lucie-Smith (born 1933) is his nephew. He was educated at Berkhamsted School, and then Eastbourne College, both private schools in England.[3] On 10 November 1911, he enrolled in the Jamaica Militia Artillery, as a commissioned officer.[3] His father had commanded the Militia Artillery.[5]

Military career and death

File:Berks Cemetery Extension 2.JPG
The Ploegsteert Memorial to the Missing

Six weeks into the First World War, Lucie-Smith joined the 1st Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment as a second lieutenant, announced in the London Gazette on 30 November 1914, with seniority to others from Australia, Canada, India, South Africa and New Zealand.[3][6][7] He travelled to England in December 1914, and undertook training on the Isle of Wight.[8] He then went to France on 17 March 1915, and was killed in the Second Battle of Ypres on 25 April 1915, age 25.[3][6] A witness said he was shot through the head, but his body was never found.[3] He was the first-known mixed-heritage officer killed in the war and is commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial to the Missing in Belgium and on the memorials at Berkhamsted School and Eastbourne College.[3][6]

Memorial Plaque

File:Memorial Plaque (medallion).jpg
A Memorial Plaque similar to Lucie-Smith's[lower-alpha 5]

Lucie-Smith's story came to renewed public attention after his Memorial Plaque was purchased by James Carver in August 2020.[3][9] In researching Lucie-Smith, Carver realised from a photograph that he didn't appear to be white.[3] Carver put the plaque up for auction in November 2020, when it was sold to the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers Museum (Royal Warwickshire) for a hammer price £8,500,[lower-alpha 6][10] a record price for such plaques.[9]

Notes

  1. ↑ Nathaniel Wells, the son of a white plantation owner and a black slave, received a Yeomanry commission in 1818;[1] Allan Noel Minns, DSO, MC, was commissioned in the Royal Army Medical Corps in September 1914.
  2. ↑ Sanderson says "daughter"
  3. ↑ Sometimes spelled 'John Barkly Lucie-Smith'
  4. ↑ Alfred also had a son called Euan: Euan William Lucie-Smith MC
  5. ↑ Auctioneer's pictures show a plaque whose name-panel has "Evan [sic]" on the first line and "Lucie-Smith" on the second
  6. ↑ £10,540 with fees

References

  1. ↑ Wyndham-Quin, W. H. (2005) [1898]. The Yeomanry Cavalry of Gloucestershire and Monmouth. Golden Valley. ISBN 0-9542578-5-5.
  2. ↑ Cundall, Frank (1925). Jamaica's Part in the Great War 1914–1918. London: The West India Committee, for The Institute of Jamaica. p. 113.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 Sanderson, Ginny (22 October 2020). "First black British officer of First World War was Eastbourne student". www.eastbourneherald.co.uk. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
  4. ↑ Bridge, Mark. "Euan Lucie-Smith: Plaque for first black officer rewrites history of First World War". Retrieved 16 November 2020.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Postmasters of Jamaica John Barkly Lucie-Smith" (PDF). Jamaicaphilately.info. Retrieved 16 November 2020.[permanent dead link‍]
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 "Euan Lucie-Smith". Herts at War. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
  7. ↑ "No. 28991". The London Gazette (Supplement). 27 November 1914. p. 10149.
  8. ↑ The Handbook of Jamaica. E. Stanford. 1918. p. 651.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Bronze Memorial Plaque to Euan Lucie-Smith". Gary Brown Medals. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
  10. ↑ "Recently Discovered Great War Memorial Plaque of the First Black Officer to Be Killed in World War One Sells for £10,540 at Dix Noonan Webb – Bought by Fusiliers Museum Warwick (incorporating The Royal Warwickshire Regiment) after substantial fundraising". Dix Noonan Webb Auctions. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
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