Joseph Johnstone's Story.
Birkenhead News 29 December 1917AN OLD WOODLANDS SCHOOLBOY
Makes the Great Sacrifice.
Lance-Corporal Joseph Johnstone Smith, the eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. J. J. Smith, 23, Eastbourne Road, Charing Cross, Birkenhead, has made the great sacrifice for King and country in France. He was fatally wounded on November 24th at the age of twenty years and three months. Educated at the Woodlands Council School, the deceased on leaving school entered the employment of a firm associated with the Liverpool Cotton Exchange, and was just 19 years of age when he joined up with the 2/4th East Lancashire Regt. After training in an Essex town, Smith went out to France some eight or nine months ago, and was wounded in one of the early “pushes” of the Allied forces, but he remained on duty, and was promoted to lance-corporal. He received the injuries that brought about his lamented death on November 24th. Four of the deceased’s cousins joined the colours, and a portrait of one of these, Pte. John J. Smith, of Collingworth Street, has already appeared in the “News” columns. The bereaved parents have received a letter of condolence from the King and Queen, whilst Second-Lieut. Flower, in whose platoon the deceased served, has sent them a sympathetic letter. In the course of it Lieut. Flower days Smith “was a fine lad, liked by all, and died at his post in the execution of his duty. I, in common with the remainder of my platoon feel for you most deeply, and offer you our sincere sympathy in your great bereavement. To those of us who were his comrades in arms it is also a great blow, for we have lost a friend.”