Ted Smout lived to 106, becoming Queensland’s last surviving First World War veteran before his death in 2004. But decades before his name was given to the bridge across Bramble Bay, an important chapter of his long life unfolded in Clayfield, where the young returned serviceman built a home and raised a family after coming back from the Western Front.
Newly published research revisiting Smout’s remarkable 106-year life has brought renewed attention to his years in Clayfield. After marrying Ella Stevens in 1923, the young veteran built a War Service Home in the suburb, where the couple raised their three children and established a family life far removed from what he had experienced on the Western Front.
War at seventeen
Born in Brisbane in 1898, Smout was 17 years and eight months old when he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in September 1915. He overstated his age by a year before eventually serving with the 3rd Australian Sanitary Section of the Australian Army Medical Corps.
Smout served on the Western Front, working on sanitation and water supplies and taking on first-aid and stretcher-bearing duties during fighting. At Passchendaele, he later recalled working for about 72 hours with little rest as casualties were carried along duckboards through deep mud.
His wartime memories also included reaching the scene after German fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron, was fatally shot down in April 1918.
The difficult journey home
Smout returned to Australia in 1919, but his wartime experiences followed him into civilian life. In recorded oral histories, he described suffering what was then called delayed shell shock. He recalled having a breakdown after returning home and struggling to adjust to life after the battlefield.
Smout resumed work and later established a long insurance career. His personal life also changed after he met Ella Stevens while playing tennis at a Redcliffe guest house operated by her family. Ted and Ella married in June 1923.
Building a life in Clayfield
The newly married couple built a War Service Home in Clayfield and raised their children Westell, Betty and John there. The Commonwealth’s War Service Homes scheme had been established after the First World War to help eligible returned servicemen and women obtain homes. The Clayfield house became the setting for marriage, parenthood and the civilian career that followed his return from Europe.
Another piece of Smout’s Clayfield history later surfaced at 15 Highclere Street. When the vacant property was offered for sale in 2016, it was marketed as “Ted Smout’s Paddock”, with the listing describing the land as having been owned and loved by Smout and indicating it had not been available for building since 1927.
His career eventually took the family beyond Clayfield. They later lived in Hawthorne and Sydney before returning to Brisbane, and Ted and Ella eventually settled in Sandgate.
A Long Life After Clayfield
Smout lived for another eight decades after establishing his young family in Clayfield. He received the Medal of the Order of Australia in 1978 for community service and was appointed a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour by France in 1998 for his First World War service.
Photo Credit: UNSW Canberra Australians at War Film Archive
He died in June 2004 aged 106. Six years later, the Ted Smout Memorial Bridge opened across Bramble Bay between Brighton and Clontarf.
Today, the bridge bearing his name is perhaps Smout’s most visible legacy in south-east Queensland. But Clayfield preserves an earlier chapter of his story — the years when a young man returned from one of history’s most devastating wars, built a home with his wife and began raising three children in suburban Brisbane.
Photo Credit: Wikipedia/CC BY-SA 3.0
Published 28-Sept-2026
