Private John Edward Smith, 2/1st Pioneer Battalion
Australian War MemorialJohn Smith, known as “Jack”, was born on the 24th of December 1917 to Philip and Maud Smith of the Sydney suburb of Chatswood. While little is known of his early education, it soon became apparent that he was a gifted musician. He received two scholarships to the Sydney Conservatorium for the clarinet, and was considered one of the finest clarinettists in Australia. After graduating from the Conservatorium, Smith immediately found work as a member of the ABC Military Band, and later became a member of a leading Sydney theatre orchestra.
Jack Smith enlisted in the Second Australian Imperial Force in June 1940. He underwent a period of training in Australia before leaving for active service overseas with the 2nd/1st Pioneer Battalion.
Following his arrival in the Middle East, Smith wrote to a friend from the ABC Military Band, saying: “My work is field stretcher-bearing, which is the fate of all good bandsmen. It has proved quite interesting, though sometimes hard to take. It has given me the opportunity of witnessing some examples of sheer bravery and doggedness that other chaps probably never see.”
From early April 1941 the 2nd/1st Pioneers spent several months in the besieged Libyan town of Tobruk, helping to defend the position by manning forward posts and occasionally fighting as infantry. Private Jack Smith continued to serve as a stretcher-bearer, at one point rescuing ABC radio announcer Michael Eisdell, who was also serving with the second AIF. Jack wrote, “I came across a chap a few weeks ago, he was crawling into the post where I was, completely lost and with a bullet wound in his leg … he turned out to be from the ABC ... I patched him up a bit, got him on a stretcher and took him back to the Aid Post, but I think he was more damaged on that trip than by his original injury, for the machine-guns were on us all the way, and believe me, when we had to go to earth I think I beat the stretcher down. You can imagine he wasn’t getting a very nice ride.” Eisdell was later invalided to Australia, and praised Smith’s work as a stretcher-bearer whenever he was asked about his experience at Tobruk.
On the 14th of September 1941, Private Jack Smith wrote two letters home. In one he wrote, “I am as fit as a fiddle – though I would not say a Stradivarius.” The second he concluded by writing, “Well, I think that I had better close now as I have a couple of jobs to do.”
We do not have a record of what those jobs were, but they cost Private Jack Smith his life. He is recorded as having been killed in action at Tobruk on the 14th of September 1941. He was buried in the Tobruk War Cemetery where he lies today under the words “He was a good boy. May it please God to rest his soul in peace.”
He was 23 years old.
- AWM Honour Roll https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/R1699989
