Euan Lucie-Smith

Euan Lucie-Smith (1889-1915) was a British Army second lieutenant of World War I, of mixed British and Afro-Caribbean descent.

Euan Lucie-Smith
Born14 December 1889 
Cross Roads, Jamaica 
Died25 April 1915  (aged 25)
Alma mater
OccupationOfficer 
Parent(s)
  • John Barkley Lucie-Smith 
FamilyJohn Dudley Lucie-Smith 
BranchRoyal Warwickshire Regiment 

He was one of the first mixed-heritage infantry officers in a regular British Army regiment,[lower-alpha 1] and the first killed in World War I.

Early life

Lucie-Smith was born on 14 December 1889 at Cross Roads, St Andrew, Jamaica, the younger son of Catherine, the granddaughter[lower-alpha 2] of Samuel Constantine Burke, a lawyer and politician referred to as "coloured"; and John Barkley Lucie-Smith,[lower-alpha 3] a white colonial civil servant who was Postmaster of Jamaica.[2][3][4] His grandfather was John Lucie-Smith, Chief Justice of Jamaica, and an uncle was Alfred Lucie-Smith;[lower-alpha 4][5] the art critic Edward Lucie-Smith (born 1933) is his nephew.

He was educated at Berkhamsted School, and then Eastbourne College, both independent establishments in England.[3]

On 10 November 1911, he enrolled in the Jamaica Militia Artillery, as a commissioned officer.[3] His father had commanded the Militia Artillery.[5]

Military career and death
The Ploegsteert Memorial to the Missing

Six weeks into the First World War, Lucie-Smith joined the 1st Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment as a second lieutenant, announced in the London Gazette on 30 November 1914, with seniority to others from Australia, Canada, India, South Africa and New Zealand.[3][6][7] He travelled to England in December 1914, and undertook training on the Isle of Wight.[8] He then went to France on 17 March 1915, and was killed in the Second Battle of Ypres on 25 April 1915, age 25.[3][6] A witness said he was shot through the head, but his body was never found.[3] He was the first-known mixed-heritage officer killed in the war and is commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial to the Missing in Belgium and on the memorials at Berkhamsted Collegiate School and Eastbourne College.[3][6]

Memorial Plaque
A Memorial Plaque similar to Lucie-Smith's[lower-alpha 5]

Lucie-Smith's story came to renewed public attention after his Memorial Plaque was purchased by James Carver in August 2020.[3][9] In researching Lucie-Smith, Carver realised from a photograph that he didn't appear to be white.[3] Carver put the plaque up for auction in November 2020, when it was sold to the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers Museum (Royal Warwickshire) for a hammer price £8,500,[lower-alpha 6][10] a record price for such plaques.[9]

Notes
  1. Nathaniel Wells, the son of a white plantation owner and a black slave, received a Yeomanry commission in 1818;[1] Allan Noel Minns, DSO, MC, was commissioned in the Royal Army Medical Corps in September 1914.
  2. Sanderson says "daughter"
  3. Sometimes spelled 'John Barkly Lucie-Smith'
  4. Alfred also had a son called Euan: Euan William Lucie-Smith MC
  5. Auctioneer's pictures show a plaque whose name-panel has "Evan [sic]" on the first line and "Lucie-Smith" on the second
  6. £10,540 with fees

References
  1. Wyndham-Quin, W. H. (2005) [1898]. The Yeomanry Cavalry of Gloucestershire and Monmouth. Golden Valley. ISBN 0-9542578-5-5.
  2. Cundall, Frank (1925). Jamaica's Part in the Great War 1914-1918. London: The West India Committee, for The Institute of Jamaica. p. 113.
  3. Sanderson, Ginny (22 October 2020). "First black British officer of First World War was Eastbourne student". www.eastbourneherald.co.uk. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
  4. Bridge, Mark. "Euan Lucie-Smith: Plaque for first black officer rewrites history of First World War". Retrieved 16 November 2020.
  5. "Postmasters of Jamaica John Barkly Lucie-Smith" (PDF). Jamaicaphilately.info. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
  6. "Euan Lucie-Smith". Herts at War. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
  7. "No. 28991". The London Gazette (Supplement). 27 November 1914. p. 10149.
  8. The Handbook of Jamaica. E. Stanford. 1918. p. 651.
  9. "Bronze Memorial Plaque to Euan Lucie-Smith". Gary Brown Medals. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
  10. "Recently Discovered Great War Memorial Plaque of the First Black Officer to Be Killed in World War One Sells for £10,540 at Dix Noonan Webb - Bought by Fusiliers Museum Warwick (incorporating The Royal Warwickshire Regiment) after substantial fundraising". Dix Noonan Webb Auctions. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
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