Note 247 — 1819-1824.
Reading edition
Smith, afterwards a sergeant, was a first-rate mason and foreman, and during his service of thirty two years, twenty-five of which were abroad, his abilities, experience, and precision were found of great benefit to the department. At Corfu, Vido, and Zante, he was entrusted with very important duties. Subsequently to his discharge in 1842 on a pension of 2s. 3½d. a-day, he superintended, on the part of the Admiralty, the building of the royal marine barracks at Woolwich by contract, and his vigilance prevented the employment of any of those artifices so commonly resorted to by contractors. He afterwards superintended for the Duke of Buckingham the building of a circular redoubt, partly of stone, for six guns, at his Grace’s ducal residence at Stowe: and in the inscription on one of the piers, his name is thus associated with the work:—
Richard Plantagenet
Duke of Buckingham & Chandos.
Robert Wilcox, Captain Royal Navy.
John Smith, Sergeant Rl Sappers and Miners.