Walter Edmond Smith, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Walter Edmond Smith

Australian Army officer

Date of Birth: 30-Mar-1895

Place of Birth: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Date of Death: 01-Jan-0001

Profession: businessperson, military personnel

Nationality: Australia

Zodiac Sign: Aries

Walter Edmond (Edmund) Smith, (30 March 1895 – 1976) was an Australian Army officer and industrialist who fought in both World Wars.
In the First World War, he served in the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force north-east of Australia in the New Guinea area then in the Australian Imperial Force on the Western Front from 1916 to 1918.
In the Second World War, as a brigadier, he commanded the first force deployed in the New Guinea Campaign, Australia's most important military campaign.
During this campaign, he opposed elements of Australian military policy, and his name was omitted from the official Australian history of the New Guinea Campaign.
In civilian life he founded Australian engineering firm WE Smith Marine and General Engineer in 1922 (later WE Smith Engineering Pty Ltd) which he managed continuously – except for the period during the Second World War that he undertook full-time military service – until his retirement in the 1970s.