Howard J. Smethurst

Howard J. Smethurst

*No soldier photograph found in the following book: Doyle, A. C., Haulsee, W. M., Howe, F. G. Soldiers of the Great War. Washington, DC: Soldiers Record Publishing Company, 1920.

Birth: 5/10/1896, Cleveland, Ohio

Address: 2916 W. 25th St., Cleveland, OH

Demographics: draft registration not found which would have contained additional demographic information; age 21 at draft registration; Caucasian; 1916 and 1917 Cleveland City Directories listed occupation as Electrician; native-born Clevelander

Draft Date/Enlistment Date/Rank: draft date not known; enlistment date 5/25/1917; rank Landsman [see below]

Appearance: not known 

Service Number: 1926926

Deployment: died prior to deployment  

Action: USNRF (United States Navy Reserve Forces) Retg Sta Cleveland, O. May 25/17; Great Lakes Illinois May 25/17 July 31/17; Hosp Great Lakes Illinois to July 31/17; Lds E (Landsman Electrician) 67 days; [Landsman was the lowest rank given to new recruits with little to no experience at sea who performed menial, unskilled work aboard ship.] Died July 31/1917 before deployment

Death: July 31, 1917 at age 21 at Naval Hospital Great Lakes, Illinois; cause of death Scarlet Fever 

[During WWI, a quarter of a million men were trained at Great Lakes Naval Training Center, less than 40 miles north of Chicago. Nearly a thousand sailors died there in 1918 due to the influenza pandemic.]

Burial: Funeral per Edick's Undertaking Rooms at 2914 W. 25th St., Cleveland, OH, "Fri. 2:30 pm Friends invited;" [this may be an example of the common practice of the funeral director Eugene Edick, 1101 Pearl St., holding services at the home of the deceased]; burial Brooklyn Heights Cemetery, 4700 Broadview Rd., Cleveland, OH, Plot Acacia, alongside parents who were buried later 

Next of Kin: Isabella Smethurst, mother, 2916 W. 25th St., Cleveland, OH

Additional Information: Mother: Isabella Hall Smethurst (1864-1928), born Scotland, emigrated ~1889; Father: James W. Smethurst (1867-1938), born England, emigrated ~1894, occupation Cigar Dealer, own shop; Siblings: Frances Smethurst, born Ohio, occupation Teacher in 1916; parents' burial record mentions Howard as their child, but no mention of Frances; the 1940 Census shows Frances [sister], age 44, single, occupation Dental Hygienist, living at 1459 Winton Ave, Cleveland,OH with partner Rowena Baker, age 41, single, occupation Office Clerk at steel mill. Sibling list may be incomplete.

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