This is a letter to the War Office from the mother of Euan Lucie-Smith (1889-1915), Lieutenant in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, 1st Battalion. She is asking for information about her son who was reported missing between April 25th and May 1st 1915. Lucie-Smith was probably one of the first commissioned infantry officers of African heritage to die in the First World War. He was killed in action at the Second Battle of Ypres in April 1915, earlier than Walter Tull who died in action in 1918. Both men became officers in the British Army at a time when the manual of Military Law forbade non-Europeans from leading men in combat.
Catalogue ref: WO 339/10918.
Transcript
31 Overstand Mansions, S.W.
August 16th 1915
Sir on the 5th of May last, I received a telegram from the War Office informing me that my son Euan Lucie-Smith of the 1st Battalion the Royal Warwickshire Regiment was missing between the 23rd April and the 1st May. I have not received any further communication from the War Office. I shall be glad if I can now be supplied to the fullest possible information. The telegram referred to above was addressed to my husband the Honourable J.B. Lucie-Smith, Post Master General for Jamaica who has since died.
Faithfully yours,
Katie Lucie-Smith