Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Lieutenant Colonel W. C. Smith, C.B.E., M.C., T.D., 28th Battalion, London Regiment (Artists Rifles), who was awarded a Military Cross while serving with 4th Battalion, Special Brigade R.E. and, over the course of a distinguished career as a geologist, added a C.B.E. to his accolades, in addition to being responsible for the study of rocks from the Terra Nova Expedition in 1913

1914 Star, with clasp (2. Lieut: W. C. Smith. 28/Lond: R.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (Lt. Col. W. C. Smith.) traces of lacquer and polish, very fine (3) £400-£500

C.B.E. London Gazette 1 January 1949: ‘Lieutenant-Colonel Walter Campbell Smith, M.C., T.D., Sc.D., Keeper, Department of Mineralogy, British Museum (Natural History)’

M.C. London Gazette 1 January 1917.
The original citation, taken from The Artists Rifles, Regimental Roll of Honour, states: ‘This officer was in command of a double company (’P” and “Q”) operating on the 55th Divisional front. Throughout the enormous work involved in the preparations, he handled the difficult situations that arose with insight and resource, and by his careful attention to detail and indefatigable energy enabled the complicated operations to be carried through without a hitch. The services referred to were rendered on the Blairville-Ficheux front between 13th and 28th June 1916, culminating in the gas attack launched from that front on the latter date’

Walter Campbell Smith was born on 30 November 1887 in Birmingham and was educated at Solihull School and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. After coming down from university he joined the mineralogy department of the British Museum (Natural History) on 1 December 1910, initially to work on minerals, but with the arrival in 1913 of geological specimens collected by the Terra Nova Antarctic Expedition, he became first and foremost a petrologist.

In 1910, Smith joined the Artists Rifles and was mobilised on the declaration of war in 1914, being commissioned Second Lieutenant on 17 October 1914. Serving mainly in France attached to 4th Battalion, Special Brigade of the Royal Engineers, for his services during the Great War he was Mentioned in Despatches (London Gazette 24 December 1917), was awarded the Military Cross for his service on the Blaireville-Ficheux line, and was promoted Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel. He was awarded the Territorial Decoration in 1929 (London Gazette 10 May 1929), before leaving the regiment in 1935. He later served during the Second War as Second-in-Command of the 163 (Artists Rifles) O.C.T.U. from 1939-41. The Regimental Collection retains Smith’s dress uniform.

Smith became Deputy Keeper of the Mineralogy Department on 1 April 1931 and Keeper on 27 May 1937. He was appointed C.B.E. in 1949 and retired on 30 November 1952, but remained on the Museum’s staff on a part-time basis. The Natural History Museum retain a large archive of Smith’s diaries, letters and other papers, in addition to similar holdings at the Geological Society of London, of which Smith was Honorary Secretary, 1921-33 and President, 1955-56.