Lieutenant Colonel Sandford F. Smith
4th Canadian Mounted Rifles

This Officer while on training duty in France was thrown by his horse and sustained a fracture of the head of the left humerus. He was evacuated to England June 10th 1917, and has been a patient at Helena Hospital until to-day, when he was discharged as completely recovered.

(Proceedings of Medical Board, 1 July 1917)

Born in Peterborough, Ontario on 4 May 1873, Sandford Fleming Smith was the grandson of famed Scottish-Canadian engineer Sir Sandford Fleming. Smith was a Toronto architect, former member of the Queen’s Own Rifles and commanding officer of the Governor-General’s Body Guard.

In July 1915, he assumed command of the 4th CMR from Lieutenant Colonel W.C.V. Chadwick. Shortly after the Mounted Rifles units were reorganized as dismounted riflemen, Smith, a lover of horses, transferred to the Canadian Cavalry Brigade under General Jack Seely in March 1916.

Smith relinquished command of the 4th CMR to Major J. F. H. Ussher and joined the 3rd Division Cavalry. He commanded the Canadian Light Horse during the final month of the war.

After the war, he resumed his architecture career and died in Toronto on 18 October 1943.