ABSTRACT
It took two days for news of Gerald Howard-Smith’s death to reach Wolverhampton. The local press was ready: the very next day the Midland Counties Express published a brief biography, along with a photograph that had been taken while he was training at Saffron Walden. The article, entitled ‘A Popular Officer’, explained that Gerald had been educated at Eton and Cambridge, before focusing on his sporting achievements, his work as a solicitor, his participation in the attack on the Hohenzollern Redoubt and his award of the military cross earlier in the year. ‘Nine or ten days ago’, it continued, ‘it was announced that the gallant lieutenant had been wounded for the third time, and it is to these injuries that he has succumbed.’ It went on to repeat the story of his bravery to the very end.
