Olive Smith

Olive Smith (1880 – 5 October 1916) She is memorialised in her home town Haltwhistle and had both brothers and sisters.

Smith was trained as a physical training instructor, firstly at Durham College of Science, Newcastle and then at Martina. Bergman Oesterberg's Physical Training College, Dartford Heath for three years,

An appreciation by an anonymous 'friend' in The Mail, and an obituary for the Bergman Osterberg Union, noted that Smith then spent a number of years training teachers in the Physical Training Department of Glasgow Provincial Centre for Teachers. Whilst working at the prison and training college in Glasgow, she lived at 30 Woodcroft Avenue, Glasgow.

The unit was then despatched to the (tent) field hospital in Ostrovo on 6 September, Smith worked in the operating theatre and reception. A short funeral service was held in the morning by staff in the hospital tent, and she was to be buried in Salonika, the next day. and other press. Her loss was reported to the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies in The Common Cause, and in the international suffrage newspaper, Jus Suffragii, which gave the cause of death as cerebral malaria. Ishobel Ross noted what Dr. Bennett told the SWH staff about 'Smithy's' funeral: a formal guard of honour at Smith's grave, flower tributes from the Serbian Army, including a red, white and blue ribbon with 'In memory of a generous English friend who gave her life for us '. And in a eulogy, in English then Serbian, Captain Stephanovitch said that Smith had shown "unselfish devotion and pity for our pains and sufferings."

Memorials There is an image of original wartime graves, including one for an Olive Smith, in the National Library of New Zealand.

Smith's Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone (plot 1600 in Salonika (Lembet Road) Military Cemetery ) was specially engraved and refers to her date of death as 24 September (see Note above). And she is listed among the Roll of Honour on the Haltwhistle Memorial Cross (1926) in the Westgate, Haltwhistle.

Smith is also included on the War Memorial (1924) at Jordanhill College David Stow Building, Southbrae Drive, Glasgow which is 'dedicated to the students and staff who fell in the Great War 1914 -18'.

The Scottish Military Research Group has a copy of the Order of Service of the memorial dedication service, and an image of the brass plaque.

In 2016, Olive Smith was listed among the thousand women who volunteered to risk of sacrifice their lives in the medical missions to Serbia in the Great War, at a memorial service, held in the Serbian Orthodox Church of St. Sava, London.