We Remember

Harry Smith

Harry Smith
Rank: 
Private
Regimental number: 
11311
Unit at enlistment: 
4th Battalion
Force: 
C.E.F.
Volunteered or conscripted: 
Volunteered
Survived the war: 
Yes
Cemetery: 
Mount Hope Cemetery, Soldiers' Plot, Brantford, Ontario
Birth country: 
England
Birth county: 
Devonshire
Birth city: 
Plymouth
Address at enlistment: 
13 Aberdeen Avenue, Brantford, Ontario
Next of kin address: 
13 Aberdeen Avenue, Brantford, Ontario
Trade or calling: 
Bench hand
Employer: 
Massey-Harris Co.
Religious denominations: 
Other
Marital status: 
Married
Age at enlistment: 
24
Image gallery: 

Letters and documents

BX December 31, 1915

Hero Comes Home

Private Harry Smith, a Brantford member of the First contingent who has been returned home invalided from the service, will arrive in the city this afternoon on the 4.09 T.H. and B. train. Mayor Spence is making arrangements to hold a civic reception for him, and it is expected that the citizens will turn out in large numbers. Private Smith came home in Lieut.-Col. Howard’s party.

BX January 3, 1916

Another Brantford Hero Welcomed From Trenches – Pte. Henry Smith Accorded a Warm Greeting When He Arrived Home, Invalided From Service – Wants Brantford Men To Replace Those Now in Trenches

Private Henry Smith, another of Brantford’s boys, who has done his bit, and has been invalided home from service, arrived in the city on New Year’s Eve, on the 6.42 train from Toronto, and was given a fitting civic reception.  Owing to many of the soldiers being away on leave for the holiday, the crowd who turned out to greet him was not so large as it would otherwise have been, but a good percentage of the 125th who we left in the city, their band, Mayor Spence, Ald. Ryerson and hundreds of cheering citizens met the train and escorted him to the Market Square.

After many more hearty cheers had been given, Mayor Spence gave a brief address and on behalf of the citizens bade him a hearty welcome back to the city.  Pte. Smith in a brief reply, thanked the citizens and others who had turned out to welcome him, and said although the life was a strenuous one he would not have missed it for anything.  He also hoped more of Brantford’s boys would see their duty and relieve their comrades by responding to the call for men.

Pte. Smith is one of the Brantford men who, when the first call came, gave up his job at the Massey-Harris works and enlisted.  He left with the First Contingent, 4th Battalion, under Capt. Colquhoun, and Lieut. Jones on Aug. 22, 1914.  After some months spent in training in England he was with the Brantford boys under command of Capt. Colquhoun sent to France, where he spent several months in the trenches, having several hairbreadth escapes.  His first battle was at Bois Grenier, where his battalion went into the trenches on March 5 remaining there until March 25 before they were relieved.  He also participated in the second great battle of Ypres, which commenced on April 23 and lasted until April 29.  He also engaged in the Battle of Festubert and Givenchy where the first battalion was given such a big cutting up.

It was at Ploegsteert in Belgium, about the latter part of August that he was stricken with septic blood-poisoning, which resulted from his being in a run-down condition.  This, along with heart trouble, necessitated his removal to the hospital.  He lay in the hospital in France in a very dangerous condition from Aug. 31 till Sept. 28, when he was transferred to England, where he was until Nov. 26 confined in four or five different hospitals…. (Letter cannot be read after this point) 

BX March 24, 1946

Harry Smith, late of 117 ½ Colborne Street passed away Sunday evening in the Brantford General Hospital in his fifty-sixth year.  Born in England, Mr. Smith came to Canada thirty-three years ago and had resided in Brantford since that time, with the exception of the time he served overseas in the First Great War.

He was a former member of the Parks Board and active in the affairs of veterans’ associations.  He enlisted with the 4th Battalion, C.E.F., and served with it in France.

Mr. Smith was an honorary member of the Canadian Legion and a member of the Brantford Branch of the British Imperial Comrades Association.

He was an old-time employee of Waterous Ltd. And a member of Holy Trinity Church.

Surviving besides his widow, the former Mrs. Grace MacKellar are two sons, Sydney Smith, Smith’s Falls, George Smith, Brantford, one daughter, Mrs. Louise Davis, Brantford, two step-sons, John and William MacKellar, both of Brantford, and one step-daughter, Grace MacKellar, Brantford.

Mr. Smith is resting at the Beckett Funeral Home where a funeral service will be conducted Wednesday afternoon.  Interment will be in the Soldiers’ Plot of Mount Home Cemetery.

BX March 28, 1946

The funeral of Harry Smith was conducted yesterday afternoon from the Beckett Funeral Home to the Soldiers’ Plot, Mount Hope Cemetery.  Rev. G. Deane Johnston, Minister of Central Presbyterian Church was in charge of the services.  In tribute to Mr. Smith there were present a large number of men from the original Fourth Battalion, C.E.F., of which he had been a member, and from the Canadian Legion and British Imperial Comrades Association.  The pallbearers, all members of the original Fourth Battalion, in charge of Col. M.A. Colquhoun, C.M.G., D.S.O., V.D., wartime commanding officer of the Battalion, were Harry Shaw, P. Whelan, R. Cross, W. Keighley, T. Anderson and S. Taylor, Comrade E.R. Edwards was in charge of Legion flower-bearers, D. Monkman, T. Hall, H.T. Truckle, A. Green, E. Mercer, P. Hawley and G. Gaydon, Ex Imperial flower bearers were D. Hughes, J. Harmer, G. Cullum, J. Hayes, T. Stevens and J. Lock.

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