Smith, Jack Eric

Tpr. Jack Eric Smith, fourth son of Mr. and Mrs. M. C. Smith, 115 Charlotte Street, enlisted in October, 1941, six months after his 17th birthday, and with a motorcycle squadron was trained at Fort William, Ont., and Dundurn, Sask. When his unit was ready to proceed overseas, Tpr. Smith was in a Hamilton hospital ill with mastoiditis. His grief over missing the trip with his friends was far greater than his anxiety over the operation that followed and in a few short weeks he was apparently recovered and on his way to England in June, 1943. His stay there was brief and he went with the First Armored Division into action in Sicily in July. After the successful campaign there, Tpr.

Smith moved into Italy and continued in action until his death on August 31, 1944, when he stepped on a land mine at Gradda, near Pesaro. Even then his eagerness to battle the enemy did not falter and until his comrades stopped him he used his rifle as a crutch in place of a lost leg. He was removed to hospital and for five days fought with the same gallantry he had shown before when illness faced him, but the secondary shock of an operation proved too much and he died. Born at Carman, Manitoba, April 6, 1924, Jack came to Brantford with his family in 1936, and for a time attended King George and Central Schools. He was employed at the Cockshutt Plow Company, Ltd.

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