Lieutenant-Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...

Sir Walter Dorling Smiles CIE DSO DL (8 November 1883 – 31 January 1953) was a Northern Irish politician. Sir Walter was the son of William Holmes Smiles, director of Belfast Ropeworks, and grandson of

Samuel Smiles Samuel Smiles (23 December 1812 – 16 April 1904) was a British author and government reformer. Although he campaigned on a Chartist platform, he promoted the idea that more progress would come from new attitudes than from new laws. His prim ...

. Sir Walter served during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and, in the 1920s, managed a tea estate in

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

, there he became involved in local government and was a member of the

Assam Legislative Council The Assam Legislative Council was the unicameral legislature of Assam in India from 1913 to 1935 and then the upper house of the bicameral legislature from 1935 to 1947, when it was disbanded by the India (Provincial Legislatures) Order, 1947, and ...

. During the First World War; he obtained a pilots certificate but due to the lack of aircraft he transferred to

Royal Naval Armoured Car Division The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was the air arm of the Royal Navy, under the direction of the Admiralty's Air Department, and existed formally from 1 July 1914 to 1 April 1918, when it was merged with the British Army's Royal Flying Corps t ...

. In 1915 he joined the

British Armoured Car Expeditionary Force The British Armoured Car Expeditionary Force (ACEF) was a British military unit sent to Russia during the First World War. It fought alongside the Russian Empire on the Eastern Front between June 1916 and 1918. The unit consisted of 566 men. Hi ...

which was seconded to the

Imperial Russian Army The Imperial Russian Army (russian: Ру́сская импера́торская а́рмия, tr. ) was the armed land force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian Ar ...

to fight against Turkish forces in the

Caucasus Campaign The Caucasus campaign comprised armed conflicts between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire, later including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus, the German Empire, the Central Caspian Dicta ...

. In 1918 he had reached the rank of

lieutenant commander Lieutenant commander (also hyphenated lieutenant-commander and abbreviated Lt Cdr, LtCdr. or LCDR) is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander. The corresponding rank i ...

and was highly decorated; he received the DSO in 1916, with bar in 1917 and a MID, along with Russian and Romanian decorations; such as the St George of the 4th class. He was

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) for

Blackburn Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the Ribble Valley, east of Preston and north-n ...

from 1931 to 1945. Smiles was re-elected in 1935 but stood for Down in Northern Ireland at the 1945 Westminster election, as a Unionist. The two-seat constituency was split in 1950 into North Down and South Down. Smiles won North Down that year and remained its MP until his death in 1953; he lost his life in the sinking of off

Larne Lough Larne Lough, historically Lough Larne (), is a sea loch or inlet in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It lies between the Islandmagee peninsula and the mainland. At its mouth is the town of Larne. It is designated as an area of special scientific ...

, in the Great Storm. He was succeeded by his daughter, Patricia Ford. He is the great-grandfather of explorer Bear Grylls.thepeerage.com
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* 1883 births 1953 deaths Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Down constituencies (since 1922) UK MPs 1931–1935 UK MPs 1935–1945 UK MPs 1945–1950 UK MPs 1950–1951 Knights Bachelor Royal Navy personnel of World War I Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Companions of the Order of the Indian Empire People educated at Rossall School Politics of Blackburn with Darwen Deaths due to shipwreck at sea Accidental deaths in Northern Ireland Ulster Unionist Party members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom {{England-Conservative-UK-MP-1880s-stub