Thursday 19th August: The adjutant of the 6th Battalion tells us about the first officer’s death they have had on active service. Last night they were digging reserve trenches under the direction of an officer of the Royal Engineers about one mile north of Kemmel. Unfortunately Second Lieutenant G A Smith-Masters, just 20 years of age, advanced out of the trenches and was shot dead, it is supposed by a Sniper. It is an object lesson for his men, and the rest of the inexperienced unit, that a moment’s loss of concentration, even behind the front line, can be fatal(1).
Source: X550/7/1
(1) Smith Masters was from Oxfordshire. His brother, serving with the Essex Regiment, would be killed on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, 1st July 1916
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