Steven Samuel SMART. Private 24683371 3rd Ulster Defence Regiment, Ballykinler Army Camp, County Down.
Son of Samuel Ann Smart.
Murdered in the line of duty 9 April 1990 aged 23 years at Ballydugan, outside Downpatrick. County Down Northern Ireland.
At rest in Molliva Cemetery, Newtownards
Commemorated on the Armed Forces Memorial, National Memorial Arboretum Staffordshire.
Click into any of the names in the tag boxes for further photographs.
The following extract is taken from a House of Commons debate which took place on Wednesday 19 April 2017 known as Ballydugan Four.
“On the morning of 9 April 1990, Private John Birch, Lance Corporal John Bradley, Private Michael Adams and Private Steven Smart, all members of the Ulster Defence Regiment, were murdered by the Provisional IRA in an attack on their mobile patrol on Ballydugan Road, Downpatrick. The four young soldiers, all in their 20s, were travelling as part of a two Land Rover patrol en route from Ballykinlar to Downpatrick when a 1,000 lb bomb placed in a culvert beneath the road—I repeat, a 1,000 lb bomb; imagine the magnitude of that—was detonated by command wire. The explosion was so powerful that it lifted the soldiers’ Land Rover 30 ft into the air and hurled it 30 yards into a field, killing them instantly and leaving a crater 50 ft long, 40 ft wide and 15 ft deep.”
Commemorated on The Armed Forces Memorial, National Memorial Arboretum, Alrewas Staffordshire.
At rest in Movilla Cemetery Newtownards County Down, Northern Ireland.
The other three soldiers were
Private 24469635 John BIRCH aged 28 years. At rest in Whitechurch Cemetery, Ballywalter, County Down. Commemorated on the Armed Forces Memorial, National Memorial Arboretum Staffordshire.
Lance Corporal 24558143 John BRADLEY aged 25 years. At rest in Roselawn Cemetery Belfast Grave V2629 Commemorated on the Armed Forces Memorial, National Memorial Arboretum Staffordshire.
Private 24684076 Michael David ADAMS aged 23 years. At rest in Roselawn Cemetery Belfast Grave T1735. Commemorated on the Armed Forces Memorial, National Memorial Arboretum Staffordshire.
