CAPTAIN J. R. C. HOLROYD-SMYTH ROYAL ARTILLERY 13TH DECEMBER 1944 AGE 41 BELOVED SON OF CAPT. AND MRS. HOLROYD-SMYTH, BALLYNATRAY, YOUGHAL, IRELAND
Captain John R. C. Holroyd-Smyth was the eldest son of Captain Rowland Henry Tyssen Holroyd-Smyth and Alice Holroyd-Smyth, née Ponsonby, of Ballynatray House, Youghal, Cork, now in the Republic of Ireland. He had three brothers, Horace, Bryan and Oliver – and a sister, Mary. Shortly before World War II he went to Malaya where he ran a rubber plantation. He subsequently joined the British Army and saw action in Europe. He was in Greece in 1944 when the German Army withdrew from the country. However, in the ensuing chaos, civil war broke out between the Communist Resistance organization ELAS, which controlled much of the country, and a coalition government lead by Georgios Papandreou, a moderate democrat supported by the British. On 2 December 1944, mounting tensions over the post-war government resulted in a demonstration during which British forces opened fire, killing ten civilians. Athens exploded in armed clashes between Greek government forces, backed by British soldiers, and left-wing guerrillas. Eleven days later, on December 13th 1944, John Holroyd-Smyth was killed, apparently by a Greek Communist. His body was interred at British Military Cemetery at Faleron (or, more commonly, Phaleron) outside Athens. The inheritance that was to come to him duly fell upon his younger brother, Horace.
