THE DEATH HAS BEEN ANNOUNCED IN VANCOUVER OF SERGEANT ERNEST 'SMOKY' SMITH VC, SEAFORTH HIGHLANDERS OF CANADA, CANADIAN INFANTRY CORPS, WHO WON IS VICTORIA CROSS IN ITALY IN 1944. |
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3 August 2005 |
The death has been announced in Vancouver, British Columbia, of Sergeant Ernest Alvia 'Smoky' Smith VC, Seaforth Highlanders of Canada, Canada's last surviving Victoria Cross holder. Ernest Smith passed peacefully away at his home on Wednesday, 3rd August 2005. He was 91 years of age. On Saturday, 13th August 2005, after lying in state, the body of Ernest Smith VC was cremated in Vancouver, and the following day, Sunday, 14th August, his ashes were scattered at sea from HMCS "Ottawa". The Seaforth Highlanders of Canada, a militia regiment, was mobilised for service in 1939 serving in the 1st Canadian Corps in the Eighth Army in Italy in 1944. The Eighth Army was preparing an offensive on the Adriatic coastal plain to breach the German Gothic Line before the onset of winter. The advance went well in the initial stages but the sequence of rivers slowed it down. Even so the Canadians reached Rimini on 21st September 1944. The official citation in the "London Gazette" for Ernest Smith's award of the Victoria Cross sums up perfectly the situation on the River Savio at the time and part that Smith took. For the award of the Victoria Cross [ London Gazette, 20 December 1944 ], Savio River, Italy, 21 - 22 October 1944, K52880 Private Ernest Alvia Smith, The Seaforth Highlanders of Canada, Canadian Infantry Corps.
In Italy on the night of 21st-22nd October 1944, a Canadian Infantry Brigade was ordered to establish a bridgehead across the Savio River. The Seaforth Highlanders of Canada were selected as the spearhead of the attack and in weather most unfavourable to the operation they crossed the river and captured their objectives in spite of strong opposition from the enemy. Torrential rain had caused the Savio River to rise six feet in five hours and as the soft vertical banks made it impossible to bridge the river no tanks or anti-tank guns could be taken across the raging stream to the support of the rifle companies.
Ernest Smith was invested with his Victoria Cross by King George VI at Buckingham Palace on the 18th December 1944.
As Ernest Smith was not a regular soldier, he was demobilised in 1945, but he re-enlisted at the outbreak of the Korean War in 1951. He served in the Permanent Force retiring in 1964 with the rank of sergeant as a member of the Tri-Service Recruiting Unit in Vancouver. After retirement from the Army, Smith and his wife ran a successful travel business in Vancouver. In recognition of his long and devoted service to the Royal Canadian Legion of veterans, he was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in 1995. |
Iain Stewart, 4 August 2005