Ambulance officer RJ Godfrey’s poem from Gallipoli to dead soldier Ira Alfred Smart’s Tea Tree Gully family

THOUSANDS of motorists in Adelaide’s north east will see his family’s name but many would not know the story behind Tea Tree Gully’s Ira Alfred Smart.

Ira Smart - World War 1 soldier. Supplied by Tea Tree Gully library.

IRA Alfred Smart died of a gunshot wound to the back a little over a month after arriving in the Gallipoli trenches in September 1915.

The former Modbury School student, whose family was the namesake of Smart Rd, Modbury, was a bugler for the 27th Battalion.

As Smart lay dying at the Dardanelles, RJ Godfrey, an ambulance officer, wrote a simple poem to the bugler’s next of kin, telling them he “did not fear his fate” and assuring them his death was “kind”.

“Give my love to Mother, and tell her not to worry,” the poem said.

Smart’s death drove a wedge between his parents.

Aged 18 when he enlisted, he needed his father’s permission to go to war, which he gave.

But his mother, Anna, was firmly against the idea of her fourth son fighting.

Tea Tree Gully historian David Brooks says Mrs Smart never forgave her husband for signing the consent form and their son’s death caused a “significant rift” in his parents’ marriage.

Mr Brooks has selected Smart as the face of a council event to commemorate the centenary of Anzac Day

“I was looking for someone with a connection to Tea Tree Gully and his was a poignant story,” Mr Brooks said.

“This was a young guy – it’s just so tragic – he didn’t even have a chance to impact on anything.”

More than 200 men from the Tea Tree Gully district enlisted in World War I.

“The majority of men that went came back but I don’t think anyone came back unbroken,” Mr Brooks said.

Smart enlisted in the 27th Battalion on March 27, 1915, and sailed to Egypt for two months’ training on May 31.

He landed at Gallipoli on September 10.

Tea Tree Gully Council will turn Civic Park, Modbury, into a field of remembrance from May 1-3 to commemorate the Centenary of Anzac

It is calling on Gully residents to nominate World War I service people from any country they would like commemorated with a poppy.

Contact the council for more information.

LETTER o Ira Smart’s next of kin by ambulance officer RJ Godfrey

Gallipoli Peninsula, 2nd November.

Give my love to Mother, and tell her not to worry.

He knew as well as we did his turn had come to die,

And slowly turn down each pallid lid,

Closed up each tender eye;

But although he knew as we did,

He did not dare to sigh.

He only had a rough bed, and yet he did not mind,

For friends were kneeling at his head,

And Death to him was kind.

Oh braver words were never said,

And ‘twould be hard to find.

A man who died as he did,

Who did not fear his fate.

But ah! He made a willing bid, for life and its estate.

But he knew as well as we did,

His bidding came too late.

‘Twas just before the daylight

Broke through the Eastern sky,

His soul passed out into the night

And left us standing by.

He knew the secret of that night,

His turn had come to die.

Originally published as Ambulance officer RJ Godfrey’s poem from Gallipoli to dead soldier Ira Alfred Smart’s Tea Tree Gully family