Lives of the First World War

Ref: B170 add 93/1, North Devon Record Office

Private 102387 Archibald Smaldon, The Machine Gun Corps. Archibald Smaldon was born in Bideford, Devon in 1882 and died in 1962. The 1901 census describes him as a carpenter aged 19 living in Alwington, Devon. In 1911, Archibald is recorded living at Heligan Mill with his wife Alice Maude and three children. The photo dates to about 1913 showing five children, they were to have eight in total. Archibald was senior carpenter at Heligan Gardens and his name appears regularly in the labour books, extant from 1914. On 24th May 1916, it is recorded “left to enlist”. He survived the war unharmed and returned to work at Heligan in the 1920s. The war service of The Gardeners of Heligan House is separately acknowledged in the Imperial War Museum’s register of war memorials. Visit www.ukniwm.org/63622 for further details. The Lost Gardens of Heligan, Cornwall, are still cultivated in the names of these past staff and are open daily except for Christmas Day.