Basil was born in London. He was the youngest child of Dr Hugh Roubiliac Roger-Smith  M.D., MRCS, LRCP and his wife Dorothy Eugenia Woodd. They lived at 1 College Terrace, Fitzjohn’s Avenue, London NW. He had an older brother and sister.

He was educated at Gresham’s School, Holt and Matriculated in 1927. He graduated with a 4th in History in 1930.

He married Winifred Dabell early in 1939. She had been born in Batoum in Georgia where her father was a petroleum engineer. They had one son born in Bridgnorth Shropshire in 1942.

Basil was gazetted on 20 May 1941 to the North Staffordshire Regiment.

He was a Captain serving with the Burma Intelligence Corps when he died, suddenly, of heat exhaustion on 24 June 1944.

He is buried in the Karachi War Cemetery Plot 8. D. 7. and is commemorated on a War Memorial plaque in the church at Ockley, Surrey where his parents lived.

Lighting was installed in this church
to the glory of God and in memory of the men of this parish
who gave their lives in the war 1939 - 45.
ALFRED BENNETT
PETER ELMS
THOMAS FAIRS
REGINALD HEWER
ARCHIE HOLDEN
CHARLES LE STEER
MICHAEL MAJOR
TOM MITCHELL
DOUGLAS RANDS
PETER RODWELL
BASIL ROGER-SMITH
"We will remember them”

On 21 September 1946, his wife and son sailed to Port Said on the Strathmore. There were a number of women and children with army welfare assistants on the same ship. It is likely that they were visiting the graves of their husbands. The manifest shows their address as The Hatch, Bridgnorth.

Basil’s brother, Raymond, died in Durban on 7 August 1942, after a long illness.