Current Information:

Born&Enlisted-London

Athis-Mons Communal Cemetery, Paris

The Battle of the Aisne  13-28 September, 1914

After the Germans were defeated on the Marne they fell back to the River Aisne, closely pursued by both the British and the French. The new German line was a very formidable defensive position. To attack it meant having to cross the Aisne and then climb up a 500 foot high ridge on top of which was the Chemin des Dames, a road that gave the Germans an easy way to move troops along the top of the hills. On 13th September the Aisne was crossed by both British and French troops but after that progress became slower, until there was no progress at all. Both sides dug in and the fighting settled down into trench warfare. The fighting on the Aisne continued for two weeks at the end of which both sides realised that frontal attacks on entrenched positions were both costly and non-productive, not that this deterred them from continuing with this tactic throughout the war.

A squadron of 2nd Life Guards was detached to help form the Household Cavalry Composite Regiment which moved to France in August, 1914, with 4th Cavalry Brigade of the 1st Cavalry Division which had been in action on the Aisne. Richard Smith died from wounds on 20th September after having been taken back to a hospital in Paris, but it is not known when he was wounded.