Died: 8th March 1916
Age: 38
Ambrose Joseph Cocks Heriz-Smith, eldest son of JCT Heriz-Smith, JP, of Slade, Bideford, was on the [Victoria] College staff at the outbreak of war, having joined it in September 1911. He was educated at Haileybury and Pembroke College, Cambridge, taking his degree in the Classical Tripos in 1900.
He had previously held a Territorial Commission, and he enlisted in his old Devon Battalion within a week of the outbreak of the war. Much liked though he was both by colleagues and boys, he was never quite happy in the teaching profession, having been unable to carry out an earlier desire to enter the Army. And now that a second opportunity was offered him, he did not hesitate. He was very soon given a commission, and after a period of training went overseas with the Wessex Division. It was his ardent desire “to shoot the Hun” and it was a bitter disappointment to him when his Battalion was sent to do police duty in India. There, however, in spite of his anxiety to get to the front, he found much work to do: he acted for several months as Adjutant, and was quartered in various stations. Almost his last service in India was to command the Guard of Honour for the Viceroy, by whom he was personally thanked and presented with a handsome souvenir of his appreciation. At the beginning of 1916 he was ordered with his Battalion to Mesopotamia, where he was killed in action in almost his first engagement in that historic land. He had written in great spirits to say that he was off for “Ur of the Chaldees.” Keen, brave, and humorous to the last, he died as he would have wished, except perhaps that he was not facing a Teuton foe. Periit ante diem, sed miles, sed pro patria.
He leaves a widow and one child.
The above text appeared in the Victoria College Book of Remembrance published in 1920.
The link to the Channel Islands Great War Study Group website is: http://www.greatwarci.net/honour/jersey/database/heriz-smith-ajc-basramem.htm
