Eric was married in 1940 and the following year joined the Royal Navy spending most of his training onboard HMS Malaya, largely in the Mediterranean. He was commissioned in April 1942, and served onboard the destroyer HMS Quantock for the landings in North Africa and Sicily. His next posting was to the frigate HMS Capel which was torpedoed and sunk north-north-east of Cherbourg, France by the German submarine U-486 on Tuesday 26^th December 1944. Seventy-six members of the crew went down with the ship after an explosion in the magazine killed him and all the other officers.

His body was later recovered and rests in the British Cemetery at Bayeux. Eric [aged 33] is one of two OWs to be buried in this cemetery.

Husband of Ann Stuart Smith of Edinburgh, Scotland: son of William Stuart Smith & Elizabeth Ann Smith.

A copy of Eric's story may be downloaded here.

See also the Commonwealth War Graves Commission permanent digital memorial, ‘Evermore: Stories of the fallen’ relating to:-
Lieutenant Eric Stuart SMITH