Duncan Smith began work at RBGE as a probationer or trainee gardener on the 4th January 1909 at the age of 24, receiving training and work experience in RBGE’s Arboretum, Herbaceous and Glass Departments. His work was“performed carefully, skilfully and intelligently” and his exam marks were such that when his probation ended on the 30th December 1911, he was appointed gardener in RBGE’s Herbaceous Dept on the 1st January 1912, Regius Keeper Isaac Bayley Balfour noting in May 1913 that he was giving “every satisfaction” in that role.(Probationer Gardener Register)
Smith enlisted after the outbreak of war on the 4th September 1914, joining the 5th Royal Scots as Private 2099. After training, Smith’s regiment joined the 88th Brigade of the 29th Division in March 1915, given the task of landing on and capturing the Gallipoli Peninsula; but first, a long sea voyage. The 5th Royal Scots sailed from Avonmouth on the S.S. Caledonia, appropriately, on the 20th March, arriving at Alexandria in Egypt on the 2nd April. On the 11th April they continued their journey with a two day voyage to Lemnos. From there a 50 mile journey across the Aegean to the Gallipoli Peninsula, leaving on the 24th April and reaching it on the 25th, the day of the first landings.
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