John ("Jake") Richard Easonsmith DSO, MC (12 April 1909 – 16 November 1943) was a British Army soldier during World War II.

Having completed his officer training he received a commission as a subaltern in July 1940,[3] and was posted to Egypt to take part in the British Empire's North Africa Campaign in December 1940.

[7] In October 1943 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel, and was appointed as the Commanding Officer of the Long Range Desert Group, as the unit left the North Africa theatre, and embarked upon the Dodecanese Campaign, landing on the island of Leros.

Easonsmith was killed in action at the age of 34 on 15 November 1943 during the Battle of Leros, when he was shot by a German sniper whilst carrying out a lone reconnaissance of a village.

[8] His body was buried in Leros War Cemetery, the gravestone bearing the inscription dedication drawn from Rupert Brooke's poem "The Soldier": "Some corner of a foreign field that is for ever England".