Biography:
Wilmot Babington Parker Smith was born 14 July 1885, the second son of the Rt Hon James Parker Smith,(College 1868-1873, Warden of Winchester College 1915-1920) and his wife Mary Louisa, daughter of William Hamilton. His elder brother Archibald Colin Hamilton Parker Smith, born 1883, came to Winchester in 1898 and survived the war.
Wilmot came to Winchester College from Cargilfield School in Edinburgh in September 1899 and was in E House, Morshead's. He became a Commoner Prefect and shot in the winning VIII at Bisley in 1904.
He left Winchester for King's College, Cambridge in 1904 with an Honorary Exhibition and was placed in the First Class of the Classical Tripos - the fifth generation of his family to achieve a Cambridge First. He left for Calcutta, to work for the Bombay Company, and joined the Calcutta Light Horse.
Wilmot was at home on sick leave when war broke out and was transferred to the Scottish Horse, a Yeomanry unit. In January 1915 they were employed in coastal defences, but in August 1915, by then dismounted, they were moved to Gallipoli, arriving on 2 September. The following day their bivouac on Lala Baba beach was hit by shell fire, causing a number of casualties, including Parker Smith. He was sufficiently badly wounded to be evacuated and died in Malta on 12 September. He is buried in Grave B.XII.6 of the Pieta Military Cemetery in Malta.
He is commemorated by the altar-piece in Chapel, erected in his memory and that of Captain the Hon. Robert Palmer (C 1902-1907) who was killed in Mesopotamia in January 1916. Parker Smith's parents paid for the figure of the "Soldier", which was dedicated in 1923 by HRH The Prince of Wales.