11 Luard Road, Navan

History of 11 Luard Road

Gerald Hugh Smyth was the eldest son of Mr and Mrs John Smyth and had been educated at the Perse School. He had wanted to fly from a young age but at 16 was too young to be commissioned so joined the R.N. armoured cars and saw service in Belgium, France, Russia, Turkey, Romania, Galicia and the Caucasus. For his services in Russia he was awarded St. Stanislaus medal and the medal of St Ann. After the Russian Revolution in 1917 he returned to England and was commissioned into the RNAS as a second lieutenant in the No. 2 Flying School RAF. On 5/9/18 at Marske-on-Sea, Yorkshire, just six hours before leaving for the front, he was flying a Sopwith Camel which stalled at 700 feet, spun and crashed. He was buried in Trumpington. Before the war his parents had lived at The Laurels in Cavendish Ave.

His mother, Annie Eliza Smyth, b.1877, volunteered for the Red Cross and worked from 1916-1917 as a cook at Huntley VAD hospital.

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1935

J Smyth