Euan Lucie-Smith | |
---|---|
Born | 14 December 1889
Cross Roads |
Died | 25 April 1915 (aged 25) |
Alma mater | |
Occupation | Officer |
Parent(s) | |
Family | John Dudley Lucie-Smith |
Branch | Royal Warwickshire Regiment |
Euan Lucie-Smith (14 December 1889 – 25 April 1915) was a British Army second lieutenant of World War I, of mixed British and Afro-Caribbean descent.
He was one of the first mixed-heritage infantry officers in a regular British Army regiment, [a] and the first killed in World War I.
Lucie-Smith was born on 14 December 1889 at Cross Roads, St Andrew, Jamaica, the younger son of Catherine, the granddaughter [b] of Samuel Constantine Burke, a lawyer and politician referred to as "coloured"; and John Barkley Lucie-Smith, [c] 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; [d] [5] the art critic Edward Lucie-Smith (born 1933) is his nephew.
He was educated at Berkhamsted School, and then Eastbourne College, both private schools 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]
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 School and Eastbourne College. [3] [6]
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, [f] [10] a record price for such plaques. [9]