Who were the war veterans honoured in Tower Hamlets?

Two Tower Hamlets war veterans who were awarded the Victoria Cross have been honoured with specially commissioned paving stones as part of the Government’s World War One centenary campaign. The stones for Corporal Issy Smith (in Ropewalk Gardens) and Lieutenant Geoffrey Woolley (Bethnal Green Gardens) were unveiled at the end of April.

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It is believed Cpl Smith was born Ishroulch Shmeilowitz in 1890. Aged 11, he embarked as a stowaway aboard a vessel to London. He arrived in Tower Hamlets, where he attended Berner Street School and worked as a deliverer. Smith served in the army for a time before the First World War but emigrated to Australia shortly before the outbreak of the war itself. Retained as a reservist, Smith was mobilised by the British Army after the commencement of hostilities in August 1914.

He was awarded the Victoria Cross with the following citation: “For most conspicuous bravery on April 26, 1915 near Ypres, when he left his Company on his own initiative and went well forward towards the enemy’s position to assist a severely wounded man, whom he carried a distance of 250 yards into safety, whilst exposed the whole time to heavy machine-gun and rifle fire.

“Subsequently Corporal Smith displayed great gallantry, when the casualties were very heavy, in voluntarily assisting to bring in many more wounded men throughout the day, and attending to them with the greatest devotion to duty regardless of personal risk.”

He returned to Australia in 1925 with his wife Elsie whom he had married at Camberwell Registry Office. They had two children. He died in September 1940 and was buried in Fawkner Cemetery, Melbourne, with full military honours.

Geoffrey Woolley was the first Territorial Army officer to be awarded the Victoria Cross. He was born in 1892 at Peter’s Vicarage, Bethnal Green, the son of the vicar. Both the church and the vicarage are still standing. He attended Parmiter’s School on Approach Road, Bethnal Green: the school building remains, but is now occupied by the Raine’s Foundation School.

At the outbreak of the World War One, he obtained a commission in the Queen Victoria’s Rifles, the 9th (County of London) Battalion of the London Regiment. The Queen Victoria Rifles were posted to the Ypres Salient. On 17th April 1915 the British captured Hill 60 to the south of Ypres. Lt Woolley’s company was sent to take ammunition supplies to the defenders of the hill.

The citation for the Victoria Cross reads: “For most conspicuous bravery on ‘Hill 60’ during the night of April 20-21, 1915. Although the only officer on the hill at the time, and with very few men, he successfully resisted all attacks on the trench, and continued throwing bombs and encouraging his men until relieved. His trench during all this time was being heavily shelled and bombed and was subjected to heavy machine gun fire by the enemy.”

Promoted to the rank of Captain, he saw further action before being injured. After the war he resumed his study of theology at Oxford University and subsequently became a vicar. His last parish was at East Grinstead, from which he retired in 1958. He died in 1968. Lt Woolley’s son Nick Woolley attended the unveiling and paid tribute to his father’s bravery.