Rank: Lieutenant Commander

Service: Royal Navy

Ship: H.M.S. Hazard

Awards: Distinguished Service Cross

Died: 4th August 1944

Age: 35 years old

Louis, known to some as Peter, was the only child of Marcell Francis Conran Smith and of Hilda Smith (née Crossley). They had married on the 17th October 1905 in Markington, Yorkshire. Marcell's father, Frances Frederick Smith was the Chief Engineer for the South Indian Railway.

Louis was born on the 13th November 1909 in Bengal, India and baptised in Christ Church, Jubbulpore, Bengal on the 23rd December 1909. His father had joined the Indian Government's Telegraph Department as an Engineer in 1896 and was the Superintendent of the Madras sector.

Both Louis's parents died when he was a child. On the 18th December 1915 they had boarded the P & O Passenger ship S.S. Persia in London to travel to Bombay. It was during WW1 and when the ship was off Crete she was torpedoed and sunk by the German U Boat U-38. Louis was not on board with them. His parents were both presumed drowned. Louis had two aunts Gladys and Annie Crossley. The Miss Crossleys lived in Burnside Cottage in Bowness-on-Windermere. Windermere became his home and it was here that he enjoyed sailing, later joining the Royal Windermere Yacht Club.

Louis entered the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth in May 1923. From January 1927 he was a Cadet and Midshipman in the battleships Benbow and Revenge. On the 16th October 1930 he was promoted to Sub-Lieutenant and served in the destroyer H.M.S.Antelope in the Mediterranean and then the minesweeper H.M.S.Pangbourne. Promotion to Lieutenant followed on the 16th February 1933.

In 1936 Louis married Miss Mhair Elizabeth Dickson. She was the eldest daughter of Lieutenant Colonel M.R. Dickson DSO of 'Woodville', Arbroath. It was announced in mid-August 1936 that the wedding would be postponed due to Louis' ship being delayed abroad. The wedding eventually took place at St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Arbroath on the 5th September 1936. By all the accounts in the local newspapers, it was a lavish affair with two hundred guests there as well as the Bridal Party. A piper played as the couple left the church and so many people had gathered to watch outside that the whole road was blocked. Mahair and Louis would have two children Caroline in 1937 and David born in Hong Kong in 1939.

When war broke out Louis was in China. On the 26th June 1940, the whole family boarded the TSS Aeneas and returned to England and Burnside Cottage in Windermere. Louis was promoted to Lieutenant Commander on the 16th February 1941. He served on the cruiser H.M.S. Sheffield, taking part in the sinking of the German battleship Bismarck in May 1941. On the 5th January 1943, he was given command of the minesweeper H.M.S. Hazard.

On the 7th December 1943 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. The citation detailed that it was awarded "for steadfast courage and skill in command of Hazard in a dangerous and important minesweeping operation".

Louis was at the Royal Naval Base H.M.S Moreta in Haifa, Palestine when he decide to go ashore and have a ride in a sports car. He was involved in a serious car accident. He died of his injuries at the General Hospital there on the 4th August 1944.

Buried in Khayat Beach War Cemetery in Israel, Louis is also commemorated on the War Memorial at the Royal Windermere Yacht Club.

 (Sources: CWGC, Ancestry, Find My Past, Various Baptism Registers, Newspaper Archives, U Boat.net, Wikipedia, Naval Lists)

(Bio: Woose)